Am(you)sement

Humans have a need to game, to watch games and, for some, to create games. It is intrinsic, it is a distraction from everyday vexations, a way to stimulate our minds, a purpose and an expression. It is significant and fundamental enough that even people struggling in difficult conditions find ways to innovatively design games, and many charitable organizations realize that enlightening people about this simple truth is a key to driving action.

A lot of kids in developing countries find time, in between the grueling work and conditions they are put upon to endure, to game or to make toys out of what is commonly regarded as garbage. Keeping an old tire running down the street with just a stick (think of the parallels to some Western kids’ games), making guitars out of plastic bottles and string, floating paper boats in (depressingly) open sewer ways, humans can find games anywhere.

I remember watching a documentary about an ex-prisoner who was in solitary confinement in the past (in Alcatraz of all places), who stated he took the button of a shirt, and would drop it on the floor. Then he would feel the floor with his hand all around the cell until he found the button. This simple act was performed in a pitch black, miserable little cell in order to keep him sane.

During my long-ago trip to India, I was amazed how popular Spirographs, Parcheesi, Snakes and Ladders and other board games were, and how so many locally made versions of these games were important in many poor people’s lives.

On another train of thought, these guys are a bit more synchronized than their US counterparts, perhaps scarily so…


Look out for the epic, dark fantasy ebooks of Goodreads-rated author T.P. Grish at:
http://booksoftpgrish.blogspot.com.au/