I used to play video games. Yet, when I make that statement, it sounds so trite. And it wasn’t. Video games were a bright spot in my life for a while. They helped me escape from a formidable depression as an adult. But that might be a story for another time.
The start of the video game notch occurred when I was a kid. We got an Atari Pong one Christmas, and we all had a flirting fascination with the game. But, not I, nor my siblings, had a lasting attraction to Pong. It seems we got bored after just so many blips.
Then, in the mid 80s, Nintendo came out with a new video system. It was called NES, and it was a glorious one dimensional, pixelated wonderland. I can’t remember what my first game was, but it was unlike anything I’d experienced before. Then. The next event was major.
Nintnedo releases a game called “The Legend of Zelda.” And that was all she wrote. The story itself is magical. A young character named Link is set out on a journey, an adventure, to save the Land of Hyrule. Everyone who is from the forest has a fairy of their own, who helps them in their every day. But Link isn’t from the forest. So. The Wise Old Deku Tree conjures up a fairy named Navi for Link. And Navi helps Link all along the way.
When you are on the wrong path, or if there is something you need to see, Navi says: “Hey. Listen.”
On Christmas Day, I opened my present from our oldest grand daughter, Haylee. It was a needle point. It said, “Hey. Listen.” There’s a little picture of Navi stitched in the center. It is bring-you-to-tears beautiful.
Haylee is a grown woman now, but when she was just a baby, I introduced her to The Legend of Zelda. She stayed at our house, a lot. We played Zelda. A lot. We continued that tradition late in to her teen life. Well. Until she went away to college. The game expanded with time, with 19 different versions on varying systems throughout the years. But my all-time favorite was the original, flat, pixelated glory of the NES.
But the thing that made the game so wildly popular was the underlying theme, that most likely went unnoticed by most kids, and adults. It mirrored life, in all its messages and nuances and scenarios. It taught life lessons, like how to work hard and save your resources, so that you could help others. There was sharing. And trading. Cooperations, and friendships. Adventures around every corner. You even had to learn how to play a musical instrument to further your quest. All of this was to work toward your ultimate goal. To save Hyrule. To save it from the evil that was taking over. To restore goodness.
And if you veered from that path? Or if you missed an important lesson? Navi would bump into you, and say: “Hey. Listen.”
And don’t you know? That’s an important one for us too. Sometimes we need to stop, to be still, and to listen.
I believe that we are probably here for a reason. That reason includes the expansion, the awareness, the enlightenment of our hearts, minds, and souls. And our personal growth in that, is expanded by our experiences. If. If, we listen. The Universe can talk to us all day long, and give us all sorts of messages. But if we aren’t listening, we are missing the grander scheme of things.
So. There it is. Video Game Wisdom. I hope today we can all stop and hear that little message when it comes around so softly.
“Hey. Listen.”
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“Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.”
― Madeleine L’Engle, Swiftly Tilting Planet
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“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.”
― Alfred Brendel
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“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway
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“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
― Stephen R. Covey
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