Thinking Inside the Box

I love my niece EC.  But I'm ready to clobber her.  Why, you ask? (or maybe you don't, I'm going to tell you anyway)

When we were visiting earlier this month, she showed me a game app she had downloaded onto her tablet.  I won't say the name.  I will only refer to it as "that evil game" or TEG for short.

So, I got home and downloaded TEG.  And have been playing it.  And will probably delete it after I finish this post.

Now, the game in and of itself is not inherently evil.  Really, noTHING in this world is.  Although things are used for evil.  And some just separate us from God because of the time/talent/treasure they consume.  And that's the thing with TEG.  It's challenging.  Not challenging as in how to make the money earned for the month stretch to pay all the bills, or how to transport children to the myriad of activities they are involved in.  It's a mind challenge time suck.

The object of the game is straightforward enough.  There are sets of paired dots, of different colors, on grids of various sizes.  The player needs to connect those dots.  Sound easy enough?  One cannot cross the path of another dot pair, and one must completely fill in the grid.  Still sound easy?  Think again.

See, it is intuitive to make the connection in the shortest possible way.  And sometimes that is the solution.  But many times, the shortest way between one pair, blocks the way for another pair.  So, the player has to go around the grid - sometimes all the way around, as opposed to going one block across.  Sometimes, the player connects all the dots - and half the grid is still empty.  Sometimes, only one block is empty.

Isn't life like that?  We're told to think outside the box - but sometimes we need to think through what is right in front of us.  Sometimes we need to realize that the intuitive "easy" answers won't work for one reason or another.  Maybe what looks clear, will block someone else's ability  - to do their job or have their fun, or whatever - one's shortcut may leave another unable to properly function.  Maybe we'll cross paths with another - and while that may work on occasion, crossing paths can, as in this game, cut off another's path.  You see, sometimes we need to look at the whole picture.  Sometimes, we have to forgo the easy path, in order to facilitate ALL that needs to be done.  Sometimes, we need to go a convoluted path, in order to make sure everything gets done - even if another could cover it, we need to make sure it's covered if they slack off.  Sometimes, we need another's eyes (read:  accept criticism and direction from others).  Sometimes, we just need to turn the game off, and walk away before we throw it across the room in frustration make ourselves nuts because we're overthinking it.  Sometimes we just need to walk away because it's taking too much of our time/talent/treasure sucking the life out of us.

So...I'm not going to play TEG anymore.  Yeah, I'll probably still play games.  But this one?  It's making me nuts.  So, as much as I love you, EC, please don't show me any more games.  Because I have no little self-control when it comes to computer games.