The Comedy of Passing the Time...

I just wasted a pretty good portion of my night on Netflix wastching a documentary called "The King of Kong". Hopefully, you'll see where I come from in my post instead of my hypocritical state of mind...I think more girls will agree with me than will guys.

Video Games are a waste of time. They are simply an activity that secludes you from reality and takes away many valuable opportunities in life. In the movie I watched, a guy spends 5 years of his life trying to set the world record for Donkey Kong. After achieving his goal, and being beat, he tries again. When he gets beat again, he cries. How pathetic is a father, husband, brother, and friend if he devotes his time, money, and life to being the best in the world at a freaking video game??

In middle school a nifty little game called 'Halo' came out. It's premise was simple. It's game play was mind-melting goodness. Well, that is to just about every male ages 11-30 that is. Personally, I suck at the game. I spent hours of my early teenage years playing it. I wasted soooo much time on the game. In all honesty, I sucked at it. In retrospect, my pathetic amount of thumb coordination may have been a blessing in disguise.

Since I quit playing 'Halo' a few years back, I have not really played video games consistently at all. When I am bored, I do not walk over to the TV, turn it on, turn the Xbox 360 on, and melt hour after valuable hour of my day, and life, away.

For a while there, I really did not have any close amigos. I was a lone wolf on my own. Since I had little else to do, I did my homework. I did it to a point that one might consider borderline obsessive compulsive. Eventually, hours of homework became a single hour of homework. I became an efficient student. My hours that could have spent trying to raise my Xbox Live 'Halo' rank to 75 were instead spent trying to raise my GPA to 4.0.

After years of working, that miniscule seeming, yet gift granting, number did appear next to the "GPA:" part of my report card. For two whole years my 4.0 was left untainted by the accursed alpahbet character "B". Then, I met Mr. Tom Puterbaugh. Once again, I ended up spending hours of my night trying to get that most glorious 4.0.

First Semester Junior year, perhaps the most critical semester of high schoo, I got my first B. I was crushed at first, and in some ways still am. But, somehow Tom Puterbaugh, being the freaking amazing teacher that he is, made me feel like Einstein for getting a B.

This however is not the story of my academic life. It is merely an extended metaphor for this post. In my patriarchal blessing it says, "You have, and will often face the choice between good and better. If you think carefully and listen to the Spirit, you will know, and do, the better". I very easily could have swept years away with video games, but instead chose the better and recieved perhaps the biggest blessing in my life this far. It is something eternal and wondeful. It's knowledge and logic.

While knowing a lot may nip me in the butt more often then preferable, I am grateful that I have never fallen victim to wasting my life. I have done many things that a lot of people have never had the chance to. I wandered Berlin alone for hours at the ripe old age of 14. I walked on Sacred Mayan ruins. I was a nerd on my first cruise and explained to a drunk girl just why it was the Triple-Sec made her vomit. She probably does not remember that though.

My message for tonight is as follows. As we go on in life, we face many choices. The choice may not always be between good and bad. It may be between good and better. My CTR ring, which I seltdom wear, tells me to choose the right. In reflection of this, I think it means something much deeper than can be seen. It is a clever reminder for us to always choose better. Some friends may be good friends, others may be better friends. In this next chapter of life I, along with all of you, will face many choices between good and better. Whether it is to serve a mission, what to major in, or how to spend money, we must always make the better choice.

Don't settle. After all, settling is what causes sink holes, and those kill people.

.02

Song of the Moment: "If I Fail" by Cartel