There are lessons that can be learned from all that we do. Even something as simple as walking the dog can teach us about responsibility, balance, and respect. When is the leash too long? When is it too short? What should you allow the dog to do to the property of another person? What does it mean for the dog? If all of these lessons can be intuited from a dog walk, what then can be learned from a complex game?
I’m a Minecraft player. I do it in order to explore my creativity and to build really cool stuff. It’s an open-world game. While there is a way to ‘win’ there is really no goal outside of living a life that pleases us. However, through playing I have gleaned valuable life lessons that I hope to pass on to my kids. Here are just a few:
- By choosing how we live, we choose our goals in life.
- Coal is an abundant but finite resource and needs to be treated as such.
- There is a cycle of life and death and that compels us forward.
- The seed exists in spite of us.
- It is easier to destroy than create.
- Violence is an element of nature and cannot be eradicated without also eliminating any understanding of peace.
- There is great good that can come out of death and out of evil things.
Some Thoughts:
- I have not been loyal to my craft and it disappoints me. I tried to convince myself that I was merely allowing myself time to recharge, but it is much more than that. There is an element of fear there—of not having enough to say, of not having the skill to say it, and so on. Every writer faces fear and a self-realization of the level of their skills. The trick is to keep going beyond that, to recognize you can only get better, and stronger through practice, and to capitalize on that.