Playing Pretend

If you saw last weeks episode of Community (or, like me, you only saw the first half), then you know that in the beginning of the episode Abed was teaching Annie how to use the Dreamatorium.

To be honest, I think that's a really, really cool idea: a zone for endless imagination.

When I was younger, I would play Pretend a lot. Most of my recesses in elementary school were spent playing pretend with my then-best friend (who, coincidentally, shared my name and lived on the same block as me).

What I loved most about playing was that you could anything you wanted; nothing was limited or out-of-bounds. We also played pretend a lot whenever we'd go to each others' houses. I loved playing Power Rangers or Link from The Legend of Zelda (video game series). I loved pretending my sword could deflect bullets. I loved solving mysteries and riddles and taking down to bad guys. I loved pretending I had magic powers and could shoot fireballs and teleport places.

It makes sense, then, that I'm passionate about Dungeons and Dragons. Its a game where friends gather in one place at one time to use their imaginations to be heroes. I know it got a bad rap in the 80s or whenever because people though it was about demons or devil-worship. But the myths couldn't be further from the truth. DnD is a game about friendship and playing Pretend and scaling 500 foot cliffs on the edge of chance. Just because a few people who play DnD happened to like or worship demons or whatever, doesn't mean that the game itself is about those things. Just like not every person of the Islamic faith is a terrorist; just like not every Christian in the United States is a anti-gay, redneck bigot.

What was I going on about?

Update: that girl in my Philosophy class DOES have a boyfriend, as I suspected. No big deal. But what kinda annoyed me was that she was being really flirty the past week or so, hitting or touching my arm and such. I'm sure she wasn't trying to be flirty; it's probably her personality. Maybe? I guess so. But it makes things confusing and complicated. My advice for today: don't flirt with anyone you don't expect to maybe date in the future. Can you now see why guys are surprised when you just want to be friends with them? Even the smallest bit of flirtation will set a guy's imagination running wild. Both sides need to have reasonable expectations to avoid or reduce hurting others.