[A Flower for Mara] Why…
First, go read this, by my sister Adiel.
Now, to address a possible question about A Flower for Mara: why would you do this to yourself? I’ve wondered this myself, actually. I’ve played exactly once, and it was a rough evening. Someone even asked the question that night. “Why do we do this to ourselves?”
Why indeed.
This poem does a lot to answer that question. I believe that we all carry sorrows and griefs with us. I believe that we all have stories to share and things that we want to say about the death that has touched our lives. A Flower for Mara is a way of interacting with those things, of drawing out those emotions and examining them and maybe, just maybe, being able to put them down. And, along the way, you can share this with others. Perhaps you will understand each other a little better by the end of the game.
My friend James said that A Flower for Mara doesn’t seem like it would be a lot of fun to play, but it might be worthwhile. Seems like a fair statement to me.
In the interest of accuracy in quoting, I said it doesn’t “sound fun” to play, but it is “probably worthwhile.” I’d say the same thing for movies like _Life is Beautiful_ where they are emotionally wrenching and certainly not “entertaining” or “amusing.” But allowing myself to go through the heartwrenching experience of the sadness and other emotion in the movie is worth it.
Grief is a part of life. I may have a post on that on my own blog at some point soon as I grapple with these thoughts.
[...] akin to an improve play called A Flower for Mara. He discusses the “why” of the game here. His post, and Adiel’s, and the discussion that is the context for the “quote from [...]
James,
That’s exactly how I took your comment. In my head, the movie was Schindler’s List or Dogtown, but the idea is the same.
And that was a good blog post, BTW. You’ll probably find my linking to it in the near future.