Still working my way through “Reality Is Broken” by Jane McGonigal. Please don’t consider these blogs anything like a review. It is not my intention to give a fair and balanced review of her book in its entirety. I find bits and pieces of the book especially stimulating and choose to follow the threads of where they lead.
Here’s a quote from page 3 of the Introduction:
“Gamers want to know: Where, in the real world, is that gamer sense of being fully alive, focused, and engaged in every moment? Where is the gamer feeling of power, heroic purpose, and community….”
In video games we have missions. The mission may be to save the Princess Zelda from the evil Gannon. Or, the mission may be to find the broken crown, have it mended and resurrect the Skeleton King. Or, perhaps the mission may be to block a white square from falling off the edge of the screen by hitting it with our paddle sending it back toward our opponent’s side of the television.
In video games we take on these missions and treat them as important with very little fuss and muss. We don’t ask questions like: “What does it matter in the cosmic scheme of things if the Princess is saved from Ganon. Heck knowing the Princess she will probably just get herself captured again soon enough.” That doesn’t happen in a video game. We just plain don’t expect the mission to be of real, global significance. We either accept the mission or we don’t. And if we accept the mission we do everything required to accomplish it. And, while doing this we pour ourselves into the task — hook, line, and game controller.
Let’s stop for a brief moment, collect the question that is lingering on the edge of this conversation, and place it safely on the side for future reference. That question is a bit nebulous — in the early phases of stellar evolution. The exact nature of this question is unformed as yet. It has something to do with “Hey wait a minute, there is something important I’m supposed to be doing. There is something of significance that I promised myself I would remember.” Or, something equally worth addressing and equally beyond our reach at this very moment. Whatever it may be, let’s set it aside — just for the moment.
Having done that, let’s consider the following: Why not take on missions in real life? Why not give them the same commitment, daring, and do? Why not make dinner preparation a mission? Imbue “making dinner” with the same sense of being fully alive, focus, and engaged in every moment? Why not let “making dinner” elicit the same feeling of power, heroic purpose, and community….”?
Is the mission of “making dinner” any less important than the mission of saving the dragon or fending of the damsel in distress? I hear through the aethers a few folk muttering to themselves: “Ah, I see where he is going with this. He is going to suggest we stop playing video games and devote our energies to so-called real world activities.” Perish the thought. I say play those video games. Tackle those cyberspace missions with gusto. Then after practicing the application of gusto apply that skill when engaged in daily activities.
Give the same intensity of focus to your preparation of dinner as you would in the preparation for a WoW Raid. In the larger scheme of things they can be equally important — a dinner no less so than clearing a dungeon of monsters.
Granted fixing dinner is not exotic. It is something that is done day after day — as a part of our regular routine. As such it has drifted into the grey of our lives. We have given ourselves permission to slack-off and only participate halfheartedly during those grey activities. “It’s a grey activity, it doesn’t really matter how it is done. Throw some grub on the table and clear the dishes when the horde has finished gobbling it down.”
Video games hold the key. Video games can help us do this one important thing: ignore the question of significance. A mission is a mission is a mission.
“feeling of power, heroic purpose, and community” are words used to describe something. This something is not “feeling of power”. This something is not “heroic purpose”. This something is not “community”. Those are words used to describe aspects of what if feels like when this something is. I deliberately say “when this something is” rather than “when this something is happening” because this something is a noun not a verb. This something is a substance. When you execute a mission alive, focused, and engaged at every moment a substance is produced.
Please bring your attention into the present as you read the next sentence.
The production of this substance is not dependent upon the significance of the mission. The production of this substance is dependent upon your being alive, focused and engaged at every moment during the mission’s execution.
Again, if you can possibly manage to pay attention, try doing that during the next sentence.
In the sentence above I made the assertion that production of this substance is not dependent upon the significance of the mission. I did not say that the nature of the mission was not of importance. The nature of the mission will have a profound impact upon the alchemical results of your efforts. Put bluntly, clubbing baby seals will have a very different impact than preparing a nutritious meal for the community.
It does matter what you do. But, significance is not the yardstick you should be using to measure this. Maybe that is because significance is a mental thing and you should really be using more of your “heart” to make this kind of judgement.
Well, this blog wandered about a bit. Didn’t even get to the point I thought I was going to make. And definitely dropped a couple of real groaner puns along the way. Now the question is, do I dump this and try again later, or hit the “Publish” button. If you reading this, then you’ll know which option I chose.