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If my life is a virtual reality game like Elon Musk says it is, my software developers have been writing some good code so far and I just got the notice that my code now includes my daughter-in-law going into labor with my second grandchild. It is also my youngest son’s first child. However, that is of secondary importance, because this is about my virtual reality.
My storyline around the birth of my first grandchild has been running great for a little over four years now. I would prefer that this new storyline about grandchild number two gets played just as well.
I remember the day that my oldest son was born. I was certain that I wasn’t ready to be a father. I was sure that I didn’t know enough of even the basics to fill this role. Fortunately for me, some of my game players were naturals at it.
I told my oldest son the same thing I told my youngest son, that they would probably be surprised at how “fathering instincts” would kick in with the birth of their first children. It was kind of like me telling myself that some “grandfather instincts” would probably kick in following the birth of my first grandchild.
I had never held a baby before I held my firstborn. He never had before he held his daughter for the first time. My youngest son is now hours away from leaving his status as a baby holding virgin. I am hours away from discovering that some of my fears about not being able to hold a newborn with the advancement of my Parkinsons Disease will be addressed by modifications in my baby holding instincts.
In my retirement, I like to be exposed to new ideas. Today, before I got the word about the labor beginning, I was exposing myself to ideas about my reality being a highly advanced technology role-playing game. I am now convinced that this is the case. I haven’t thought about this enough to have an informed opinion as to whether or not this is a good or bad thing. It certainly is a shocking thing.
As I look back on my life so far I must admit that I have had times where I thought that some unseen force was fooling with the rules of the game, without informing me ahead of time. I also have to admit that I have handled some problematic situations better than I had the smarts and the skills to do. That I am an avatar for a more accomplished virtual game player rings true.
I also buy the concept that the players of my virtual reality games are being played by other players whose perceived reality is virtual to the more advanced players.
I am reminded of the joke about the wise man telling an initiate that everything known sits on the back of an immense turtle. The initiate asks what does the turtle stand on. The wise man replies that the turtle on which the entire universe rests stands on the back of another turtle with it being turtles all the way down.
I feel special thinking that I am being played in one of the games where I get to know that I am being played.
Before I was forced into retirement from work due to Parkinsons Disease, I wasn’t aware that working was all just a game. I took the matter seriously. Although I often felt played, I thought of those times as being learning experiences for me, not for some unseen player.
Looking back I am more aware of how I played others. In my career as a professional social worker, there were times that when I thought that I was helping others learn how to manage their lives better when I was more likely using them as an avatar to experience how I would experience their circumstances. Not good.
As we develop new ways to process o’s and 1’s and go beyond o’s and 1’s I hope, for my grandson son – to – be’s sake, that somethings get taken out of the game. Please, no more lurking Illuminati or other New World Order types. No more satanic popes or antichrists. No more bizarre presidents of the United States of America or weather controlling groups. Definitely lose the shape-shifting reptilians and other extraterrestrial malevolent overlords, even the ones that are visually appealing.
Life can be very much like those video games where the object is to gain more and more power in order to defeat ever bigger and badder bosses, with the object of beating the game so you can find another game to play. The real-life game usually involves getting money and maintaining a favorable credit rating to be able to buy the good times and as cushions against the blows of the not so good times.
In closing fanciful speculating as to what life is all about can be quite meaningful, but what good will it do me if I get into an auto accident on the way to the hospital to see my grandson. I hope it will allow me to function better by not taking life’s problems so seriously towards having more dramatically favorable outcomes.
I believe that a good man plays his games the best he knows how and thinking of it as just a game can accomplish just that.
Could Jesus Christ be the figure that is of the game, but not in it? Could He be the provider of access to the entity, (God), that wrote our code? Is it our job to play our part well in keeping with God playing all parts well?
I wish I could write parables like those attributed to Jesus. It is just not in my code to do so.
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Photo: Pixabay