A thumbnail sketch I did of a house in our neighborhood while on a walk this morning with Vic. I have a tendency to draw slanted—as you can see. I am not going to watercolor or shade this sketch which would give it a nice 3-D look because 1) it’s wonky 2) I will redraw it tomorrow and put the front door in the middle even though that is not how it is.  
But this is my first attempt at drawing something that I didn’t find on the internet, but just from walking around. So, I’m pleased, even with the wonky-ness. 

                                                                    *********


I’m back after hitting a bump in my blog journey. It’s not that I don’t have enough to say. I have too much to say. I have deep thoughts about transcendence and meaning, and I have trivial thoughts about lunch and the sad state of my walls (which are deteriorating in front of my eyes from water damage from the apartment above us). I have emotional thoughts about my family, my life, my past, my future. 

I fell into a trap with this blog thinking that I had to write something profound or as profound as I can be, as if each post needed to have a bigger universal point than the everyday doodling of a getting-older-by-the-minute lady. I see the trap. Now I shall try and dig myself out by writing a little about last night, game night. 

 We stayed up later than usual because our granddaughters came over and we finished playing the video game, The Last of Us. That is an amazing game. On the surface you can think of it as a zombie/apocalypse shooter. But that would be like calling To Kill a Mockingbird a cute coming-of-age story set in the South. My granddaughters and I have spent several months playing through The Last of Us I and The Last of Us II.  

I am floored by the discussions we’ve had stemming from this game, such as what makes us human? Can humanity rise about its violent tribalism? At what point do you forgive what feels like the unforgivable? When is loyalty a trap? What do we owe those we love? What do we owe those who are not part of our group? Is killing always wrong? Who or what decides? 

Yes, in the game you spend a fair amount of time shooting the unfortunate people who have become zombies due to a worldwide fungal plague—surely mercy killings which lead to more in-depth discussions—and in shooting the various factions that humanity has splintered into. But every encounter feels loaded with moral implications. 

The graphics are phenomenal, but the star of the game is its Story; its dedication to making the characters as real as any I have ever read in a novel.  Each main character has an arc, they change, they struggle with all of the above questions. It is a profound game if you stop and talk about it as you work your way through, right up through the ending. 

I did not know how it would end, and the girls—who have played through before—did not give me even the smallest hint. I speculated on possible endings, fearing a nihilistic streak in the writing, but I was wrong. That all I want to say. 

Here’s to trying to write about the mundane. 


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