Daddy's Tutelage

This morning, during that period of the day when the boys are still playing video games before being corralled into The Official Program of the Day, Daniel really wanted me to play his video game.  It turned out that his game was Super  Mario Brothers.   I vaguely remember jumping over flaming chasms and evil turtles and walking into mushrooms many years ago, when I myself was somewhat interested in video games, sometime in the mid 1980's.  But I stink at it - especially now!

So Daniel was determined to try to get me past the more difficult points in the game, and kept taking over to "grow" Mario bigger with more mushrooms, ahead of whatever damage I might do to his stature once I take over control of the game again.  It was moving how much he wanted me to play it, and to thrive, and soon Ian joined in as well, lobbing me over the coasting turtle shells and the canyons of fire.  But Ian's comment about his helpful role was even more moving:

"It feels really good to be able to help you with something."

(July 5, 2013)