I was looking for quotes about the city, when I came across this gem:
“City folk need not feel sorry for themselves or be pessimistic about the soil in which Christianity is planted to live and bear fruit. The Christian faith was made for contest, and its best fruits are always produced out of the harsh soil of difficulty and danger.”–Theodore C. Speers
I like it.
Even though I challenged Ben Lehman to write The Wire roleplaying game, I realized that this might be a game that I want to write, too. Or maybe I just really really want to play it.
I’m not saying that it would be a licensed work. Oh no. Rather, I’d want to have a game that, over time, develops a multi-layered look at a city. Your city, in fact. The struggles of various institutions, both political and commercial, being gamed out along with the lives of the people intertwined in these institutions or caught in between them.
And who knows? Maybe it would be cathartic for me. Today, I’m feeling rather rantish about the state of our society. Maybe something like this would be a positive outlet. Instead of, you know, blogging about it.
I was at Presbytery this last week, and, like good Presbyterians, they were using Robert’s Rules of Order to conduct business. This isn’t really anything new, and I’ve been around long enough that I’ve seen it done before. But, for the first time, it occurred to me that Robert’s Rules are just another form of game design. Roleplaying design, even. Consider this: you have stake-setting (by moving and seconding a main motion) and conflict resolution (through subsidiary motions and finally voting). You have a GM (the moderator). You have folks responsible to know the rules and check things in the rulebooks (the parliamentarians). You even have someone whose is responsible to write the Actual Play report (the secretary).
That’s right. Robert’s Rules are just another way of roleplaying.
Being serious, I wonder how much insight we game designers could gather from the procedural structures of Robert’s Rules. Their existence to structure a formal social situation is anecdotal evidence that System Does Matter, yet their design is such that the group can hack them on the fly, by moving to suspend certain rules and the like. They also acknowledge that human judgment is necessary as part of the System, and also provide a way for the GM/moderator to be overruled by the rest of the assembly. There’s a lot that we could glean from this resource.
Hey, everyone. Ralph Mazza of Universalis, Robots and Rapiers, and Blood Red Sands was interviewed by Clyde on Theory from the Closet. Ralph even had a chance to break out his rules writing rant. Pretty cool!
I’m going to combine two posts into one. Fear my blogging power!
Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I’m doing okay, actually. Had a bit of a moment when I read this, but otherwise I was on an even keel for the day. That’s good, actually. Looking back at previous years, this day has been better or worse, depending on stuff.
Elder James McDonald grabbed me after worship and said that he had been praying for us. He lost his mother a few years ago, too, and he said that he’d been thinking about us. On the one hand, it’s a positive indication that it took me a moment to figure out what he meant. On the other hand, I was deeply moved and appreciative that he had remembered. Made me feel loved.
The day before that, I watched Baby Mamma with Crystal. She wanted to see it, and it was for her birthday, so I said yes.
Now, before I launch into my cultural critique, I need to say that I enjoyed the movie. As my father would say, “It was diverting.” It followed the romantic comedy formula without the central relationship actually being a romance. In other words, it was about a relationship founded initially on a lie that needed to be transformed to a relationship founded on truth. Maybe it was a buddy movie…or maybe buddy movies are related to romantic comedies.
Anways, the bits about pregnancy and childbirth were pretty funny, and I laughed at the right places. At least, I’m pretty sure that they were the right places.
Then I left the theater with Crystal, opining that our civilization is doomed.
Providentially, as we wandered the Shoppes after the movie, we stumbled upon the display of the Dirty Laundry Project, which essentially reinforced my concern.
We have disconnected love, sex, marriage, and childbearing. In the movie, one of the characters says to another one, “What does being married have to do with having a baby?” One of the T-shirt said, “Love does not equal sex. Sex does not equal love.” While it’s certainly true that sex doesn’t always equal love, isn’t it supposed to? Several of the T-shirts talked about waiting to have sex. Wait for what? Marriage was never mentioned. Apparently, you’re supposed to wait for “the right one”. But, in the heat of the moment, the one in front of you is “the right one”.
And, ultimately, we take love, sex, marriage, and childbearing, and turn them into ways to satisfy our own lusts and desires. Yes, even childbearing. It’s the new way to self-actualize, to find meaning in your existence. Having children has become about being fulfilled as a person, not about giving to the next generation.
The more I wander the world, the more that I realize that the simple act of establishing a household, centered on the marriage of a God-fearing man to a God-fearing woman, raising God-fearing children, is a revolutionary act of epic proportions. The kind that makes the foundations of this corruption system tremble.
Here’s one from the quote file:
“Surely avant-garde enemy rebels of the system never had to change diapers.”–Bruce Sterling, Islands in the Net
I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.
I haven’t forgotten about this. However, this Friday, the folks at Film and Theology at Mars Hill Church in Seattle will be watching this. I’m waiting to hear what James Harleman has to say before writing up my thoughts. This is mostly because I’m still gathering what I thought about this movie.
The Twiiter updates are vanishing from my blog. If you’re interested in following me on Twitter, you can go here.
So, back here, I described that I was going to begin experimenting with Twitter. Personally, I’ve found the experience fascinating. It’s even useful, as it let me stay in prayer for a family in our church while their aged mother passed away. But now I turn to you, my faithful readers. I’ve been putting the Twitter updates into my blog for about a month now. What do you think? Choose one of the following:
1) You used to write posts on this blog, you moron. Knock it off!
2) I find myself strangely attracted to the petty details of your life.
3) I could really care less what you do.
4) I’m going to send you $20.
Please respond in the comments!
