- Write character design feedback for the RPG that I’m creating as an indie game designer
- Eat nutrition bars as meal replacements somewhere in the realm of five times
- Convince family in their mid-20s to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and mini-marathon it with them
- Track down references for and commission the asexual equivalent of video game character fetish art (have you heard of “food porn?” it’s like that except with cute and tasteful outfits instead of cute and tasty food)
- Theorize why, other than the two relatives I was theorizing with, I’ve never met a single person in my age demographic including myself who stuck with the exact faith they were raised in (and I’m the only one who went from no faith to faith)
- Rewatch the pilot episode of the original Power Rangers and marvel at how the dialogue feels like it comes from a different universe*
- Attend a service at my relatives’ church (even though I usually don’t) and then discuss the intersection of superhero comics, ponies, aliens, parallel universes, and fourth-century-AD theology at the “potluck”
- Sweat outdoors in tropical humidity until my clothes become too big
- Discover how truly ugly some people’s bodies are (acceptable clothing levels get skimpy in an area even warmer than where I live, so beware the blemishes!)
Yep. While in Hawaii we kept watching stuff about snow and winter!
- Watch Frozen for the first time and follow it up with a philosophical discussion between midnight and 1 AM about idealism vs. pragmatism and other spiritual or intangible moral underpinnings of the most purely secular (irreligious) artworks
- …oh, and also Anna being more awesome than all other Disney princesses combined
- Philosophically explore the objectivity of either morality or nihilism and the untraversable gulf between them, plus the potential Platonic reality of numbers as a necessary framework of the universe, while en route to a restaurant for a birthday party
- Look up and attempt to understand the most mysterious Bible verses on smartphones and tablets while at said restaurant (not verses about morality or nihilism—those aren’t mysterious at all (and yes, you’ll find nihilism right there in the Torah)—but more like whether people are dichotomous or trichotomous beings)
- Head out to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and royally gorge on popcorn because why not
- Talk about various common Bible (mis)interpretations that are exceptionally difficult to derive from the texts (rather than from tradition or from pop culture representations), like six-day creationism or Hell as eternal torment—I actually had and still have a blog post planned on this very topic of things that one doesn’t have to believe to be a Christian (or Jew or Muslim in some cases), so I was well prepared
*On this one I missed an opportunity, though, since I didn’t segue it into a philosophical discussion regarding why anyone believes that we understand the mindsets of historical cultures
If there’s a takeaway from my post today, here it is: don’t underestimate the depth of the people around you if you haven’t tried to engage them. Even if they pursue the most seemingly shallow interests or seem as average as average can be on the outside, you can never know what they do and what they think about when they’re away from your eyes and ears.
Bonus quotation!
Relative 1: You guys didn’t play any video games?
Relative 2: They’re in their 20s.
Me: Yeah, that’s why we watched Disney princesses and My Little Pony.
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