Do you remember your last play-pretend game? Sporting superpowers and shooting cars to prevent your intel from getting snatched. The car seat cushioning was fuzzy, soft, and equipped with flexible enough seatbelts.
When I got out of the car that day I didn’t think it was final. That we wouldn’t play pretend again. It ended there, and we didn’t even know it.
Would it have been a luxury to know that day? Would you savor it?
I don’t think so, personally. It was evident then and it’s evident now: playing pretend didn’t fit in the future schematic. No one’s gonna join with a “pew pew” with a finger aimed at the teacher. Or the manager. Boss even. It just isn’t practical – to herald it as cutesy and quirky and lively enough to take with you, to consider it a tragedy that we aren’t doing that how could this be and etc.
There are more graceful ways to revitalize the common day, aren’t there?
Well, maybe one day you bring it back. But learning your footing in the concrete jungle – you can’t keep that in your backpack. It’s impractical. Or without yield.
It’s not just playing pretend. It’s videogames, anime, music even. It’s carrying a lot of things which block your exit from the concrete jungle, if that makes sense.
When you’re in the druidic district to cop some azalea seeds for a balcony view, you’ll need backpack space. Not a laptop.
You can’t water videogames, anime, OSTs. They’re all dead. Imageboards are dead.
Water as you might, you’ll be stuck with soaked merchandise. No growth anywhere to be found.
Why continue to water dead things? We knew that shooting the car wouldn’t make it explode. And deep down we know how however many more hours we water these dead flowers, nothing will change.
I didn’t know that day we’d stop playing pretend. And I don’t know when I’ll stop lugging these dead flowers too.
But the day will come, whether we know it or not. Let’s hope we can fashion some pots out of it all at least.