![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What can we learn
Jun. 16th, 2006 01:44 pmIt's amazing how much we can learn from our children. Mostly, we learn whether or not we gave them the tools to survive on their own.
Yesterday, I took my son out to the mall for birthday shopping. My youngest turned nineteen yesterday, some days I think about that and go, eww... I'm old and others, I realize that a lot of the people his age have parents that are pushing sixty not fifty. However, I digress. We were in the car on the way to the mall and got into a discussion regarding what had happened on the previous day at the church goes to and volunteers with their youth group.
The main pastor, Pastor Rex, is a pretty open minded guy. His opinion on role playing games is that they are not evil. Robby, who is more or less a pastor in training, believes they are evil.
So, my son, who has been involved in some sort of role playing games since he was old enough to count spots on dice, had a long chat with Robby. In short, Tom told him that the games, in and of themselves, are not evil. The problems arise when people cannot distinguish the line between between the fantasy of role play and reality. It is not the fault of the game manufacturer that their product gets into the hands of people that get so caught up in a fantasy that instead of losing themselves temporarily in a game to relieve stress, they forget reality exists. Tom didn't tell me if he changed Robby's opinion in any way, but he did give my son the courtesy of listening. Not being able to discern that line is why, IMO, some people are of the mind that novels like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code are evil.
Interestingly enough, Robby advocated getting on boxing gloves and having a match with whomever has irritated you to help ease the stress, etc.. Seems like RPGs are not ok with him, but pounding the crap out of whomever annoyed you is ok. What about turn the other cheek? Or to paraphrase a friend of mine, :doesn't sound very Christian to me. That's not a knock at Christians, it's just... beating on someone might ease your frustration and temper, but there are more constructive ways of coping. Yeah, so sayeth she with the short temper from hell.
Some of you might be familiar with a little card game called Munchkin. If you aren't, it's put out by Steve Jackson Games in Texas. Yes, THAT Steve Jackson, the company that was raided by the Secret Service and won huge bucks in a lawsuit. Anyway, Tom took the game with him to play at the community center after services. Seems his way of dealing with stress (yelling, carrying on, and being generally silly while socializing with his friends) is less violent than what Robby suggested. Tom ended up explaining the game to him and why it was more fun that beating one someone with boxing gloves ... no one gets bruised under normal game circumstances.
So, this prompts a few questions:
What do you do to help relieve stress?
If you role play, how do handle it if people tell you that you are doing something evil?
And as corollary to that question, why do you think some people believe what's meant to be harmless fun, be it RPGs or any number of things, is evil?
Yesterday, I took my son out to the mall for birthday shopping. My youngest turned nineteen yesterday, some days I think about that and go, eww... I'm old and others, I realize that a lot of the people his age have parents that are pushing sixty not fifty. However, I digress. We were in the car on the way to the mall and got into a discussion regarding what had happened on the previous day at the church goes to and volunteers with their youth group.
The main pastor, Pastor Rex, is a pretty open minded guy. His opinion on role playing games is that they are not evil. Robby, who is more or less a pastor in training, believes they are evil.
So, my son, who has been involved in some sort of role playing games since he was old enough to count spots on dice, had a long chat with Robby. In short, Tom told him that the games, in and of themselves, are not evil. The problems arise when people cannot distinguish the line between between the fantasy of role play and reality. It is not the fault of the game manufacturer that their product gets into the hands of people that get so caught up in a fantasy that instead of losing themselves temporarily in a game to relieve stress, they forget reality exists. Tom didn't tell me if he changed Robby's opinion in any way, but he did give my son the courtesy of listening. Not being able to discern that line is why, IMO, some people are of the mind that novels like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code are evil.
Interestingly enough, Robby advocated getting on boxing gloves and having a match with whomever has irritated you to help ease the stress, etc.. Seems like RPGs are not ok with him, but pounding the crap out of whomever annoyed you is ok. What about turn the other cheek? Or to paraphrase a friend of mine, :doesn't sound very Christian to me. That's not a knock at Christians, it's just... beating on someone might ease your frustration and temper, but there are more constructive ways of coping. Yeah, so sayeth she with the short temper from hell.
Some of you might be familiar with a little card game called Munchkin. If you aren't, it's put out by Steve Jackson Games in Texas. Yes, THAT Steve Jackson, the company that was raided by the Secret Service and won huge bucks in a lawsuit. Anyway, Tom took the game with him to play at the community center after services. Seems his way of dealing with stress (yelling, carrying on, and being generally silly while socializing with his friends) is less violent than what Robby suggested. Tom ended up explaining the game to him and why it was more fun that beating one someone with boxing gloves ... no one gets bruised under normal game circumstances.
So, this prompts a few questions:
What do you do to help relieve stress?
If you role play, how do handle it if people tell you that you are doing something evil?
And as corollary to that question, why do you think some people believe what's meant to be harmless fun, be it RPGs or any number of things, is evil?
