The Board Game Faith Newsletter, Issue 24
Hello, Board Game Faithful!
Daniel: Are there skills in which you have struggled to improve throughout your life? Home improvement skills, among others, fall into that category for me. The other day I tried to store our kayak by suspending it from the underside of our back deck. True to form, I overtightened the bolts from which the kayak would hang and broke both of them. While I like to tell myself that breaking bolts is the result of my awesome untamed strength, I fear the truth is that I still haven’t mastered how to tighten bolts properly even after all these years. The good news is that there’s still time to learn!
Behind the Episodes
Kevin & Daniel: Some of you may have noticed that we have a variety of social media posts: video clips, photos of games, quotes from episodes, invitations to discuss topics, etc. This past week we returned to posting quotes and an invitation to discuss an upcoming topic, after a few months of absence of such posts. It’s been encouraging to see the response. What kind of posts do you enjoy seeing most from us? Which sorts do you think are most engaging? Please let us know at boardgamefaith@gmail.com.
Coming Up
Kevin & Daniel: Two fantastic guests are coming up: first off is Jordan Ault, the winner of our recent contest. As winner, Jordan picked “rules” as the topic for his episode, and the discussion was a lot of fun. You’ll want to check it out! The episode after Jordan, we’ll be talking with game designer Shem Phillips all the way from New Zealand! We’re so excited for both these guests.
Games We're All About Right Now
Daniel: We picked up a few games at a friendly local game store during a recent trip to Kansas City, including Sea Salt & Paper. We really like it! It fits well into the game space we seem to be inhabiting at the moment: quick, small box games with little set-up, but deliciously difficult tactical decisions.
Spirituality
Daniel: I’ve been thinking much recently about the notion of an “agendaless Christianity.” Depending on one’s own faith tradition, the idea could be reframed as “agendaless spirituality,” or “agendaless faith.” I should say that I’m not sure an agendaless faith is possible, or even that it’s necessarily a good thing, but I’m still intrigued by the idea. If the point of religion is to foster connection and love, does any kind of “ulterior agenda” ultimately get in the way of that? Or are connection and love “the agenda”? The question also reminds me of an especially haunting assertion by the great Buddhist author Thich Nhat Hanh, who wrote that all ideas create suffering. When adherents to a religion understand its point simply to be the mustering of support for an idea (an “agenda”), are they (we) actually steering that religion away from its real purpose and creating suffering instead?
Media We're Digging Right Now
Daniel: Our family has been grateful for the release of the second season of Our Flag Means Death on the U.S. streaming service Max. It’s a quirky comedy about an 18th century English gentleman who decides to become a pirate. There is explicit language and violence, but it’s also an achingly sweet and tender show about two men learning to be honest about their feelings, rejecting society’s expectations of masculinity, and falling in love along the way. It’s a show our family has fallen in love with along the way as well.
Thank You!
Thanks so much for being a part of the BGF community. We are grateful for each of you and the ways you make the world more awesome. And if you haven’t had a chance to tell us a little about yourself yet, we would love it if you could fill out this form please!