From time to time I find it necessary, if not essential, to pay homage to those younger and geekier roots of mine. Those that, in some regards, never truly left.
This weekend, I was fortunate to spend my time hiking in the Catskills with a few wonderful friends. I came to a poetic stream of thought that I wish to share with you all: The human life, the totality of it all, is a true genuine quest of wonder and splendor.
It is much like Link’s journey for the Triforce, Frodo’s journey to destroy the Ring or the idealized hope of many to obtain the Holy Grail — a quest with all dungeons, dragons, esoteric patterns and treasure maps presented in the imagination.
There’s something particularly meaningful to the recognition that we have but one life to play with: no restarts, no redos, no “try again” options. Just one life before continuing on to face that final boss.
Sure, from time to time we are given second chances, provided with some elements of good fortune, but these too are impermanent and must be seized at just the right moment in time. Such opportunities are not applicable to the entirety of one’s journey, only at specific moments, helping to open up and reveal gaps and possibility to our valiant hero.
The meaning of such a quest, the overall value of the journey, would be non-existent if there were redos.
And immortality — if such a concept would be only applicable to the corporeal form — I find slightly unappealing.
The fact that we only have one shot to save the princess, collect the shards, installs a certain necessity for such a hero.
This one chance gives each individual a nearly infinite amount of power, only limited by powers like government and goblins, of course. However, with this power comes a tremendous amount of responsibility, begging the question of which path, which journey, is the one worth pursuing?
Now, I don’t wish to spend time speculating about such a question, but what is worth mentioning is that the path one chooses to pursue is worth contemplating and reasoning over.
Upon birth, we are sort of thrown into a level with given conditions, be it as a hedgehog who for some reason opts to collect rings, an Italian plumber who ends up seeking stars or some city gangsters ironically copping thugs.
Some of these conditions are certainly given, and we cannot exactly change all factors at any moment. But our ability to continuously choose, to decide what path to take allows for the possibility, perhaps what many would call a delusional one, that one day the hero can reach a point where both one’s life dreams and one’s reality become indistinguishable.
It is the existence of such choices, the ability to constantly choose, to recognize new levels and possibilities, that makes this quest of life incredibly rewarding.
At least more so than any game with a controller.