Not a Gamer

So, the post for today (Day 8) in the Write 500 word challenge was to make a list, and I just don't think I want to make a list with 500 words. After all, I've been all about crossing things off my list today, trying to get ready for next week. And the Day 9 (because remember I've skipped a couple of days of the prompt) was to teach someone something, and I figured I'd save that up for next week, too..

So basically I'm just going to skip those two things and free-write. Surely I can ramble on for 500 words.

Today we had dinner with Nana and Papaw and Will was there. He's a true gamer in every since of the word, and after we ate he asked us if we wanted to play with him. I am not a gamer, never have been good at video games (although I do enjoy Candy Crush and Bejeweled and I used to really like Solitaire)... but since Will asked me to play, I gave in.

We played some version of Mario on some game system that I'm not even sure what it was, and I enjoyed it. All three of us were playing the board at the same time, which got confusing, and I'm pretty sure that I got stepped on by a turtle (or whatever those things are and whatever they do) a couple of times because I wasn't sure who was the good guy and who was the bad guy...

which is a lesson in life, now that I think of it. Sometimes people appear like they are on our team when they really aren't.

Anyway, after I won one game and Wallace won one game and Will one game and we got a couple of draws because we couldn't figure out how to get out of the stinkin' level (another life lesson... sometimes you're stuck in a world of your own making and you don't know what the ending looks like)... we decided to head back to the house, where I promptly leveled up on Candy Crush to give myself a sense of accomplishment that I could, in fact, do something better than a 5 year old (although he doesn't play Candy Crush... otherwise he would probably beat me). And I worked on some stuff and headed down to Mom and Dad's to sit in on a therapy session and then forced myself to walk 2 miles on the treadmill.

As I was sitting thinking of writing I started thinking of how we all have our own unique talents. I am not good at video games, but I am good at putting words on paper (at least I like to tell myself that I am... it may be a false delusion, and if that's the case I doubly thank whomever is reading this rambling). We each need to appreciate each other for our uniqueness and our abilities.

Here's the thing, though. You don't have to be good at something to enjoy it. I had a good time just being with Will, and playing that game brought back memories of my childhood with my Nintendo and Sega Genesis. I spent a lot of time playing Super Mario Brothers and Tetris and Sonic the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong, even though I wasn't the best at it.

In our society, we all have to be the best... except we don't. Tonight, I'd like to challenge you in the coming week to do something you'll enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it... even if you aren't good at it. Even if it is a challenge. Even if it makes you feel stupid.

Because sometimes we learn more from stinking at something than excelling...