Sandcastles
“Why do some video games make it seem like being bad is more fun than being good” Tater asked Filly. Tater had been watching a show about horses, where the good people stayed good and the bad people were obviously bad. It was a stark contrast to the video games she had been playing, where she claimed that it was “fun” in the game to do “bad” things.
“Well, do you know when you are at the beach and work really hard to build a really great sandcastle, and then someone comes and thinks it is really fun to tear it down?” Filly asked Tater.
“There are a lot of people who think it is really fun to build the sandcastles, to work hard, and to do their best, and there are a few who think it is more fun to tear the castle down” Filly added.
Tater nodded her head, understanding the analogy.
“You have to be smart because games are always trying to trick you into thinking that being bad is more fun.”
“But that is not the truth” Filly said.
“But why do games do that”? Tater asked. “Why do games want people to think it is fun to be bad”?
“Probably because when people can get away with being bad in pretend and have no consequence, then they think they can “win” illegitimately so they will buy the game and the game makes money” Filly said.
“But no matter what a game says, it is not more fun to be bad, because it hurts people, and because it is wrong and because Jesus taught us to be good and follow his rules. If we do good, then we will be protected, because in the end, being bad always has negative consequences or punishment and people who do bad do not actually win, no matter what a game says,” Filly said.
Tater looked thoughtfully at the clear shiny flower magnets she was arranging in a long row on the bottom half of the fridge as they were talking.
Filly was being thoughtful too.
The seemingly innocent question by Tater was deep. How indeed was it possible that games for children, were geared to make bad things seem good and good things seem bad. And for that matter, why would adults want a game that did that too?
Filly did not know the reason it was possible but she did know that she had many other reasons why the kids were not doing video games at her house. Instead they were busy with things like reading books, cooking coffee cakes for tea parties, working with plants and flowers, building, painting and doing laundry together. Sometimes they also wrote letters and sometimes they went grocery shopping.
The book Filly had read in the morning to the kids was an old book she found at a thrift store with a story about girls who loved playing with their dolls, and how the dolls came alive and how the children had to be careful with the dolls as it showed what kind of person they were as parents…by how they treated their dolls. In the story the broken dolls were taken to a doll hospital. Children learned good parenting behaviors from pretending with dolls and tools.
Filly had in fact taken two small broken porcelain dolls to the doll hospital the day before to be repaired.
But what happened when people were more interested in breaking dolls than in fixing them? Wasn’t that what was happening with covid? Or With people thinking that their bodies were “wrong” and needed to be “broken” the same way that some people thought that a beautiful sand castle needed to be destroyed.
Filly tried to imagine how parents justified in their minds, helping kids destroy their own bodies thinking it was “kind” to do so, and that somehow it was “protecting their psyche” . But ACTUALLY it was no different from letting kids go and destroy a perfectly good sand castle that other kids had built, because the parents could not say no to the kids about something that was bad. They thought it was “kind” and yet, failing to teach kids that something was self destructive was a mistake, and those parents were listening to evil, not God.
Jesus “transfigured” when he rose up into heaven. But the trans part of that word had nothing to do with diminishing or destructing his body rather it highlighted the purity and perfection of his spiritual self. People should be afraid to be bad, and NOT be afraid to be good.
Filly did not know all the reasons that some people believed that it was ok to condone bad behavior or why it was better to smash a sand castle any more than she understood the reasons why a person would want to destroy their own body.
The many faces of evil were as numerous as the many numbers that existed in math. But math problems, she knew, had only ONE right answer. Society did not work or waste time wanting to learn about all the WRONG answers to a math problem.
Society should not be creating scenarios where kids thought it was more fun to fail, to be destructive to themselves or to others, or to “find the wrong answers” to math problems, than to win, or be good.
Filly and Tater and Mister had listened to Faithbridge Kids church video because they had decided to stay home for church since one child was coughing. The Sunday school show was about praying to God and never stopping.
Filly thought about a conversation that she had a while ago with her mom regarding God and Prayer about how they laughed because they both agreed how amazing it was that each could feel one small hair on the inside of their shirt and had to pull it out. They had marveled at the way God had created man to be able to feel or sense such a tiny thing as a minuscule hair touching the body when clothes and make up and socks and such were also simultaneously touching the body.
God was more than a thousand more times sensitive to his “body of Christ” which was mankind. And mankind communicated to God with Prayer. Prayer also was communicated by behavior…good behavior.
God’s creation was meant to contribute to the good of society, not to destroy it. And Filly was teaching the kids to “pray” without ceasing. Mister came up to her, just at that moment and brought the shiny blue bible for them to pick their daily bible verse for the day.
It was a game that they played every time…to pick randomly a bible verse and then explain what it might mean for them today. Maybe a game that ensured a win every time.
“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven” was Filly’s randomly chosen bible verse. And she did indeed loved the little children.
“And whosoever remaineth in the place where he soujourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts beside the freewill offering, for the house of God that is Jerusalem.” was Taters randomly chosen bible verse. It meant that any place where Tater stayed temporarily, she was to be helped by the men around her, with all things of value, to make sure she stayed close to the house of God.
“The desire of a man is kindness and a poor man is better than a liar” was Mister’s randomly chosen bible verse.
If people were supposed to love and cherish children, and also give gold and goods to support them in their temporary abodes, then any desire that is a liar (fake, self serving), will not enrich them. “Desire” of man is not sexual, it is kindness. Kindness does not sexualize, exploit, or deceive children. So poverty in truth is better than winning with deceit.
The phrase “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” means that lying or acting dishonestly leads to a series of complications that can spiral out of control. It originates from Sir Walter Scott’s poem “Marmion,” published in 1808. Video games, and even the internet, a “tangled web” as published before it’s creation…lol. And little children figured it out.