Gamers!

I have a whole household of them.

The linked article above makes some interesting claims. Intuitively, I agree with most of them. I think game-playing is one of those wholesome recreational activities.

My versions of some of her points;

1. Don’t play more than 21 hours a week; HAVE A LIMIT! Do other things first, don't let the game take over your living.

2.Playing with real-life friends and family is better than playing alone all the time, or with strangers; I know people who play a lot of XBOX or PS3 or Wii games online against strangers and really enjoy themselves. I don't think it's bad to cultivate the ability to play with people like that. But it's better to play with people you know; develop those already-existing relationships.



3. Playing face-to-face with friends and family beats playing with them online. This is a toughy for me, because I love playing with my kids online. But I am also certain that they are better when we play in person. And the (perhaps not-so-obvious) point should be made; games are not ALL computerized!

(This game seems to involve the person who is "it" sitting in the middle of the trampoline and rolling back and forth, trying to tag someone)



4. Cooperative gameplay, overall, has more benefits than competitive gameplay; that sounds pretty simple, right? Is it more fun to play with someone or against them? I'm not discounting the importance of healthy competition, but emphasizing the importance of team spirit and sportsmanship.

5. Creative games have special positive impacts; have you ever watched kids build a world out of legos? Or created a creature in a game? The thrill as they make something should be one of the goals of recreation!


2 other important rules:

* You can get all of the benefits of a good game without realistic violence – you (or your kids) don’t have to play games with guns or gore; this is a big deal to me. I despise games (and movies, and books, and songs, etc) that are grotesque for no good reason. We can do without that, thank you.

*Any game that makes you feel bad is no longer a good game for you to play. There are lots of "game" events that make you feel bad; measure your emotions when you play, and when you are done. Positive experience? Good feeling? Be a self-aware consumer of recreation!

This Is a Great Day

I know it is also a sad day, remembering some terrible things. There are only so many days in the calendar, so I think it's appropriate to be happy for some reason on each one of them, even if there are anniversaries that are sad, too.

Now, every day is a great day. We are alive in a beautiful world. But for me, today is one of those days of all days.

Twenty-two years ago today, I woke up very early and very wound-up. It was my wedding day!

I was thinking yesterday of the hilarious schedule we followed that day. We were sealed early, and then for some silly reason, Jenni and I were left alone to put our stuff in our car before meeting back up with our wedding party for the breakfast.

We came || close to just running away.



But we managed to hold on. Went to lunch, thanked everyone for their support and drove off.

There are a lot of things that happen, that have to happen for a wedding to succeed. A lot of choices to make. One of the things I am most pleased with was our decision to put off the wedding reception for several days, so we could just get away as soon as the wedding was over and not spend the day exhausting ourselves .

So what did we do with out free time? We went BACK to the temple!

Is that a metaphor, or what?

After spending the morning in the Salt Lake Temple, we drove 2 and a half hours to Manti, and there did another endowment session. I mean, that was us, it was me, and it still sounds unbearably, nearly insufferably pious to ME. But I am glad we did it.

It matters to us. We married in the temple because it matters to us. We went to the temple again because making it a priority matters to us. I can point to our wedding picture, hanging in our home, and the temple is in the background. Going to the temple was a choice that will resonate for the rest of our existance. It is something we still honor by going regularly as a part of our 20-plus years of marriage.



We finished our session in Manti and checked into the Manti House. We spent one night there, and then drove down to Zion’s Park and camped one night.

For our anniversary tonight, we took the kids out to our favorite Chinese Buffet. I leaned across the table and whispered to Jennilyn, indicating our kids on either side of us, "We did this."

Happy Anniversary to us!