Game Over

No big post tonight:  too much news going on.

September 11th was a strange day for me:  it was both a day of great sorrow, but also a day when I confirmed my life's calling to be a journalist.  No one I knew personally was killed in the attacks on New York, and since I was in college working at the TV station at the time I helped report on security measures being taken at the local nuclear plant.  It was my first real TV story, and I knocked it out of the park.


In the years after that, I saw the effects of that attack ripple through my world.  People I went to high school with  who decided to join the National Guard in order to get money for college were now training for war and deploying for years at a time to Afghanistan and later Iraq.  Security became an increasing concern, and many illusions I had about safeties both big and small were removed.  I began following world politics with a renewed sense of purpose, and learned some truths about how I view that world in the process.

And yet, with all the big and important things going on, I still play video games.  Escapism is still a big part of my life, and has boomed to be an even greater part of the entertainment industry since 9/11.  Sure, a lot of it is just the momentum of the industry and progress of technology, but never before has the need to set down the weighty burdens of the world for a time and enjoy as simple a pleasure as The Legend of Zelda seemed as important to me.  It helps me stay sane, amidst all the rest of the insanity I see in my job every day.

So tonight, when I log into World of Warcraft or The Sims: Medieval (oooh have I got some things to say about that one...), I will do so knowing there's one less evil in the world to fight.  And for today, that's enough.