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What’s your power fantasy?
Last weekend, my two youngest kids played the non-board game version of D&D (although a rules-lite version) with me for the first time. When they encountered a goblin village that had been terrorized by dire wolves, my 12-year-old, playing a shifter rogue who was raised by wolves, said, “I was raised by wolves! I’ll go talk to them!” She and her 11-year-old sister (centaur monk) negotiated a treaty between the pack and the goblins by developing a garbage chute that would allow the goblins to compost their food waste and provide some easy food for the wolves without danger to either of them.
The 12-year-old often asks me, “Dad, what am I going to be when I grow up?”
I always tell her, “You’re going to be an amazing, compassionate, kind, caring person.”
“No, that’s not what I mean!”
“I know. But that’s what matters. That’s who you are now. I know that’s who you will always be. That’s what the world needs. That’s how you will change the world. Your employment is just one way to live that, but it’s not who you are. And we will be proud of you no matter what.”
I had to learn that the hard way. I was a pastor for 22 years. It defined me more than I realized…until I wasn’t. Because of my adamant dedication to inclusion, which ran counter to the desires of a powerful minority in the community I was serving, I had to follow my values and beliefs instead of security and suddenly found myself unemployed with a degree that has no value in any other field.
I found myself asking that same question. “What will I be?” And I’ve learned that I’m a guy who wants everyone to know how loved they are, who gets completely wrecked when someone doesn’t know that, especially when someone else is getting in the way of them knowing that. And when I can do something about that, I have to do it.
Also, I love TTRPGs.
And regardless how we end up with food on our table on any given day in the future, I pray that that’s who I will always be.
Last night, that 12-year-old told my wife that she wants to be rich so she can give money to the poor, which morphed into her wanting to be president so she can make laws so there aren't poor people.
A meme circulated a few months ago with this quote: “Paladins: For when your no-consequence power fantasy is the ability to help everyone as much as you can.” Yeah, that, but your class doesn’t matter. My 13-year-old is creating her sea elf druid so she can join her sisters this weekend and help animals, too.
Who are you? |
