The Board Game Faith Newsletter, Issue 29
Hello, Board Game Faithful!
Kevin: There are SO MANY VIRUSES going around right now. 3 out of 5 people are sick with something. I’m still getting over some sort of yuckiness, it’s been 2 weeks! Bodies are weird. Why can’t we be more like board games and not get sick? If I could find a magic genie, I could ask to be made out of cardboard then I would be VIRUS-PROOF. However, going out of the rain would be deadly. No more trips to the beach for me.
Daniel: Poor Kevin! But wait, there may be a solution! If you do find said genie to turn you into cardboard, you could coat yourself with this product: a clear, protective shield you put on your board games to make them water-proof! (No, this is not an advertisement for BGShield - I have never tried it and cannot attest to its results. I just saw an ad for it and couldn’t resist riffing on Kevin’s dream of a cardboard existence.) Being cardboard and water-proof…is there anything better?! (Also, I hope you and your family are feeling better soon, Kevin.)
Behind the Episodes
What episodes? We took a holiday break. But never fear, plans are being hatched even as we speak.
Coming Up
More on the enneagram, and more awesome guests, and more book club and A/V club. We got plans for 2024, yo.
Games We're All About Right Now
Kevin: I’ve so enjoyed Scout, it’s my favorite quick game or demo game. I like the issue of timing and trying to plan a major play before someone else goes out of the game. I’ve yet to have a game end by “everyone else had to scout” condition, so that is my new 2024 lifegoal. But The Cat in the Box is even better. That’s a smart, conniving, and dastardly game.
Daniel: I was very grateful to receive a copy of Hamlet: The Village Building Game for Christmas. It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite titles, Keyflower. Both games involve growing your village through tile-placement (a favorite mechanism of mine ever since Carcassonne) while developing your economy via pick-up-and-deliver (another mechanism I quite enjoy).
Spirituality
Kevin: Do you know what the most common miracle of Jesus is, in the gospel of Mark? (This is a surprising one.) It’s exorcism. So I’ve been thinking about that some. Exorcism is common in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, but not in John or the letters of Paul. It’s not something that Jews or Christians practiced regularly after the apostolic period. It’s sort of a weird blip in ancient Jewish and Christian practice, derived partly from Greek ideas (the daimon), that there are demons causing people’s suffering. In the gospels people are never blamed for their possessions – no one is in trouble for playing with a ouija board or casting a spell, for example. As I have thought about this, it seems to me it shows Jesus meeting people where they are, but also the freedom of the church to not make this one of its main forms of religious practice (it is not a sacrament or ordinance).
Media We're Digging Right Now
Kevin: I’m trying to watch Rebel Moon, it’s mostly annoying (long speeches and lots of tropes – OF COURSE there is a bar fight where they recruit a friend) but then it’s kind of awesome. I also watched Black Swan, which is an older movie but it’s really powerful and haunting.
Daniel: I’ve been enjoying my read of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman. I ordered it because–like many people–I am slowly feeling buried by email, to-do lists, and important tasks that I never seem to get to. To my surprise, Burkeman’s main message so far is: “time management doesn’t work. You will never get everything done. The sooner you embrace your limits, the happier you’ll be.” I am eager to see where the book goes, but so far it’s off to a pretty cool start.
In Memoriam
Daniel: Some of you know already that my mom Nancy died suddenly the week after Christmas. While our family is grieving, we are also grateful that we all got to be with her during her final hours. Plus, we were able to play some board games with her in the days immediately beforehand. I think it’s fair to say that I would not be a part of Board Game Faith were it not for my mom. She taught me from a very young age both to love board games and to be interested in matters of faith. I’m grateful to her for instilling a kind of board game faith in me, and for the opportunity that upbringing has given me to connect with amazing people like Kevin and all of you.
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!