Isn't it funny when you find some deeper thought in something as shallow as a game or cartoon?  Or pick up a thread of thought from some book that gets your brain rattling?  I had a few of them on my mind lately, thought I'd share them.
    I'm a really fast reader - generally I have two or three novels going at the same time.  I read the unabridged version of The Stand in, like, four hours.  Several years ago, I grabbed a copy of Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga.  He lives in the same state as me (N.C.) and I really enjoyed Ender's Game, so I was anticipating a good sci-fi read.  What I got was something that really got me pondering about the nature of God and man that eventually wound up with me being baptized as a Christian.  Okay, before you start the moaning....the book (or this blog, for that matter) isn't about becoming a Christian.  The novel begins with a world where no one has ever, in their life, experienced any pain, physical or mental.  For generations no one has injured themselves, felt incapacitating sorrow, or seen a young person or loved one die unless they were very old.  Then life on this idyllic  world is suddenly shattered when families begin finding people dead in their beds, a child burns to death, and people are cropping up with bruises, cuts, and crippling injuries...and a spaceship lands with two people who can read minds, who have a strange tale to tell that started thousands of years ago...  Without going into a lot of detail, it brought up a lot of things that I never really considered before.  Like, how much can you possibly protect others before you turn them into puppets?  How much responsibility do you expect from those who watch over you, and who watches them?  Yes, utlimately it lead to me accepting Christ but the point I'm making that it started FROM A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL.  This is not where one generally looks for spiritual epiphanies.  But it set off a serious chain of thought that led me somewhere I  NEVER would have expected. 
    I think most of us can relate to being moved by a game's storyline.  I've read dozens of posts from people who admitted crying over Aeris in FF7, or over Yuna and Tidus in FF10 (okay, I'm a SquareHead, I admit it, I was one of the crying people).  And for some reason, I have been thinking a LOT lately about the storyline of FF Tactics Advance.  No, not that it moved me to tears.  Four kids find themselves transported to the world of Ivalice.  All of them recognize it as a game world (yes, a Final Fantasy game) yet only the main character has any desire to return to reality.  The others actively try to stop him, and he finds himself trying to convince them that no matter what problems they face in reality, staying in Ivalice is only running away.  It's kind of an ironic echo of myself as a gamer - I love games because they are my retreat from the issues of the day, and no matter how badly something goes at home or work, I know I can at least beat the crud out of some beastie somewhere.  And if a magic portal popped up to whisk me away to Ivalice, I'd be in faster than you could say "huh?".  Unfortunately that's not likely to happen, and sooner or later I know I have to shut the system off and go deal with the messes that make up daily life.  It's kind of surprising to  admit to yourself thet HECK YEA you would dump your problems for a chance to live in a made-up world, it's not something I would expect me to do! (As if I were watching myself third-person, lol)  Was this a really life-changing revelation?  Nah, but it did provoke a brief self-exam along the lines of  "Gee, am I really that much of a wuss?" I seriously doubt that Square/Enix was telling us "Gamers are avoiding reality!  STEP AWAY from the system!" but you have to wonder, how many people do give up living a real life?  We look to games, books, music and movies to distract us, to move us, to show us things we can't see or imagine for ourselves.  When does the distraction become more important than the reality?
    There's tons of anime out there, and I collect LOTS.  Me and my husband are pretty diverse; we got samurai stuff, horror, comedy, sci-fi, romance, you name it, we probably got it.  Recently we finally got around to acquiring Princess Mononoke on DVD.  At the heart of the story is man's conflict with nature; we as a people have a nasty habit of destroying things around us.  In the case of Mononoke, nature has some pretty sharp teeth and is amazingly good at fighting back.  You know, as we hear stories about greenhouse gasses, glacial ice melting, wars over dwindling oil supplies and such I can't help but think Nature doesn't need to fight back, sooner or later we will end up destroying ourselves.  I'm not a tree-hugger, but I do feel sad seeing forested areas get torn down just to make room for another overpriced development.  Is it really possible to find a middle ground?  We can't just scream "Stop destroying the environment!  No more new houses!" - people need homes, too, and land to grow food, and transportation.  It's just depressing that so often it comes down to one or the other getting shot down entirely. 
    I'm not one for trying to be profound.  It's just interesting how something so trite as a game or a fiction novel can actually make me think about bigger issues.  And that's what really good entertainment should do - it should make you use that hunk of tissue in your head and actually think.  I get the feeling I'm going to get bashed on this blog, but I'm not trying to rattle anybody's cage here. All I really want to convey is how funny it is that you find inspiration for mental debate in the oddest places.  And, well, if  I do get bashed, at least I made you think about why I'm wrong.