I played my new video game system this morning. Wow. I have over 20,000 retro video games to play. I’ve played some of the first video games I ever played this morning in December 2025. I was not yet 10 years old when I started playing games on computers and video games on TV. It brings me back in my mind to when I was content to sit in front of a screen for hours and play a game. Life was much simpler for me then. Fighting and shooting and killing an opponent was first introduced to me playing games on computers and video games. They were all graphics and surreal sounds and at the time were very advanced.
I grew up at home in a safe and secure environment. Violence and drugs were not part of my childhood. My parents were never violent and did not use drugs. That’s not to say that there were not problems at home. My parents separated and divorced when I was 4 years old. My older sister was 8 and my younger sister was 2. Like any family experiencing a separation and divorce it was very difficult for all of us. My dad left my mom for another woman.
It’s interesting to see how computer and video games mimmick real life problems, and at the same time they are artificial. Video and computer games are more about action generally. Some of these games focus on the players mental strengths like chess.
Video and computer games are designed for kids in general and more and more adults are playing them these days. It’s difficult to explain the peace I feel with a hand held game control directing a character on a screen to run and jump and kick and hit and shoot and dodge. It feels appropriate. I’m 47 years old and playing video games. While it doesn’t change the past, in some ways playing a video game puts a new perspective on the past.
It’s just me home alone with my pet dog and myself in front of my TV playing video games. No one in my home is separating. No one in my home is getting a divorce. My home these days is my safe place where those things have not happened. It doesn’t stop them from happening and they don’t apply to me. My home is my comfort zone. I can invite guests over to play video games. I’m 47 and live in an apartment far and away from my childhood friends. People I know in my community I met while volunteering and at work. Do they play video games? Probably some of them do. Probably some of them would like to compete with me at a video game.
Video games are a realm consisting mostly of my past from when I was a young boy. I’ve grown. Times have changed and some things have not changed much. Many of my friends started families and have children. They have careers and mortgages. They are far and away half way across the country in the community where I was born. And they have moved all across the country and to different countries. They are not down the block from me. They are not a simple phone call away. These days we keep in contact with Facebook. A post here, a text there. A picture of what they are up to.
Video games are used for many reasons. I think in the worst case, players use video games to temporarily escape realities of life. Balance is important. Too much time in front of a screen is not healthy whether it’s for work or to watch news or for entertainment. I think the best scenario for video game players is to balance time playing the game with time used for everything else away from the realm of watching a screen.
When I’m home I can play video games. I have many responsibilities managing my environment that have nothing to do with watching a screen. That’s adulting. It’s good to grow and it’s good to age. It’s good to be 47 and strong and healthy and able bodied. It’s good to be free and to live here in America in Oregon in my apartment I lease and a valued tenant and valued resident and valued in the community where I live.
Interest or not 
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