November 25, 2011

god is not a partisan

Remember Nick Berg?  He was an American captured in Iraq by Islamic militants.  They cut off his head and posted a video of it online. What would I say if I were him, with the cameras on me, about to die? Putting aside that I would not be allowed to ad-lib, and that even if I were, I would stammer and cry and beg for my life.  Putting aside that my heart would be hurling itself against my chest, pounding in my ears and I would be too afraid to think. I would say: Don’t let what is about to happen make you become them.   Thinking about what happened to Nick Berg, I feel something primal. I want to find the executioner, hold him …

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April 1, 2011

why we are avatars

For years I had only a vague idea of what World of Warcraft was.  To the extent I thought of the people who were caught up in it (or other games like Grand Theft Auto or Halo), I pitied them.  I couldn’t fathom why people would choose to waste their time like that, how anyone could prefer staring at a screen and pushing buttons  to all life’s other options. But a couple years ago, all that changed …  and I’m still a little mystified about what happened to me.  I’m a grown man.  You might not know it from a distance, but it’s true.  How did I get caught up in an online fantasy game? It was winter in Chicago.  That was part of it. …

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