This past summer, I logged a lot of hours on a video game that my friend
Shane introduced me to - Nazi Zombies. It's basically a separate level or
game within the Call Of Duty platform wherein you are trapped in a
building and zombies continue to attack you. The goal of the game is
to basically keep boarding up windows and keep killing zombies.
Pretty simple. The only problem is, they grow in their quickness and
ability to withstand gunshots and stabs each level. Shane and another
friend named Taylor (the three of us make up the Mancation team)
and I bonded a lot of over many hours of playing this ridiculous but
highly addictive game.
Last night, I had the chance to play it again with a new friend here
on the Trinity campus. My new friend's name is Pete. Pete was a
student here at Trinity and now works here part time as a 22 year
old dorm-parent for high school boys. Pete's dad also owns a Wine
Store here in Port Hope called 'Fresh Off The Vine' and gets a lot
of free homemade wine as a perk. Last night, Pete and I had some
deep and intellectual discussion while drinking some nice, warm
merlot and slaying mutant, walking dead troops of the fuhrer. It
was a nice escape from both of our heads and a welcome retreat
from the sick-a-tating winter.
And suddenly, while playing the game with Pete, I was in a good
place. I had achieved Nirvana (even though the setting of the
game is quite morbid). I was instantly in summer mode. Relaxed.
With family and friends. With good folk.
It really doesn't matter in what venue we engage people - it just
needs to be done to further our existence. To grow. To learn.
To adjust. To learn compassion. To study. To pour out. To take in.
So tonight - why not crack out some red and play some vids with
a friend? I guarantee that it won't become about the game. It will
become about much more.
