“We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different.” -Kurt Vonnegut
Life’s a game, no matter which way you look at it. Everywhere there is conflict, collaboration and resolution. Evolution is just a number of players vying for top position while the rules continuously change. There is no winning the game because the game doesn’t end when you leave. There are always more players. There are always new rules.
Games have helped me compete in the real world as well as escape it from time to time. They’ve trained me how to approach new challenges, figure out the rules and chart a path to my goal. They hone my curiosity and exercise my critical thought. They forge new friendships and gather old friends together. And they are the best way to fart around.
When my wife and I decided to have a child, it was because we felt we had figured out how to live a happy and productive life. I started teaching high school right after I graduated with my Masters in Education. I taught math and computers and ran all the gaming clubs at my school. Students who were always quiet during class would open up over a game of magic. While the subject matter was different, it still exercised the types of critical decision making we were trying to teach. Sometimes it just takes a different framing of the problem to get someone interested.
Beyond the complexity of the rules of the card, it also taught skills in social navigation. Without enough players, there wasn’t a next game. Without new decks, the games got boring. When your deck beats everyone else, all the time, no one wants to play with you. They learned how to forge and navigate a shared social contract. They learned how to participate in a community.
Those students pulled me back into Magic after I hadn’t played since highschool. I’m still good friends with the crew I played with back then, though the focus of our friendship has shifted away from cards. Throughout the years, I kept falling in and out of magic. However long it had been since I last played, the game was always as fascinating as the first time I played it.
I play a lot of games, but Magic most of all. I have a closet like the one in the “Royal Tenenbaums” with floor to ceiling board games. Now I have a son, Francis, 3.5 years old, who loves to play. We play everything from soccer to board games to paper airplane races. I believe that playing games taught me how the world works while giving me some of the happiest moments of my childhood and I can’t wait to introduce him to all the joy of play.
On Mythic Dad, I’ll share all the tips I have for getting the most out of playing games with your kid. How to scaffold their experience so that they have have the curiosity and resilience to seek out ever more complex challenges. How to win well and lose well. How to keep themselves and their friends engaged in play that draws out the best in all of them. And most of all, how to have fun together and as Kurt Vonnegut reminds us “Please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”