wjrp

[wjrp]

Is Tomorrow Enough?

(written 18 March 2023 at 2:20am and 16 August 2023 at 10:45)

I turned the corner, forgot to be careful forgot to worry so much about a soft landing but what about tomorrow, you say

what about it do I want it, I wonder what about it you should know I thought of it is tomorrow enough?

sufficient for transition addition, my mission is today’s me enough for the ignition?

I ran through the streetlights and yes, I really did fly through the town, landing but what can’t I overcome?

what about it as I shove through, I wonder what about it you should know, I thought of it is the effort enough?

sufficient for transition my addition, my mission is today’s me enough? for this fruition?

©2023 Windy Johansen (wjrp)

[wjrp]

Remember (Yield)

(written 30 May 2023 at 4:14am)

we will not yield but you will remember

we will not yield and you will remember

The trees cry, and bend Leaves touch the ground Light dances in the sky, firelight you will remember

Music sings, from when? Wings move the sky Miles flashing in my mind, I’m alight you will remember

remember, remember, never yield remember, remember, never yield

we will not yield but you will remember

we will not yield and you will remember

remember, remember, you will remember lightning in the dark remember, remember, you will remember lightning to your heart

remember, remember, I will remember wings moving the stars remember, remember, I will remember Miles flashing in the light we will remember

remember, remember, never yield remember, remember, never yield

I do not yield and I will remember

©2023 Windy Johansen (wjrp)

[wjrp]

TwoBitGameTours 1: Bitey Farm Animals, Sim Pathfinding, and God

(written 13 May 2023 at 8:14am)

Sims…Sims are weird little simulated people, and sometimes they drive you clear up the wall.

Much like children or pets…or computers. (Or other groups of beings/things, I’m certain.)

So, a few years ago, I was playing the Sims 3. My Sims at the time had a toddler. They’ve gotta be taught how to walk and talk (you’re supposed to anyway..). Right. I can do that.

So I directed this kid’s mom to teach her kid to walk, I think it was. (I’ll call her Mary because I’ve forgotten what name I gave her.) Kid’s room was off to the side, relatively near their house’s stairway. So this chick picks up her kid. Cool. We’re on our way.

So she walks over to the top of the stairs, puts her kid down… then walks down the stairs without said kid.

Then the “frustration” or “I can’t do that” bubble pops up.

Aaaugh. Why’d you leave your kid at he top and you at the bottom?

It’s funny now. I mean, it was kinda funny then, too, but mixed with “why are you like this”.

If anything, I was frustrated at EA (Electronic Arts) for this pathfinding snarl that happened.

(I really don’t know how difficult programming pathfinding is, but EA is massive. It just felt below their capabilities.)

At the time, I wasn’t thinking too hard about any of this, and figured out how to get her to teach her kid to walk or whatever it was.

Thinking about this now, I didn’t hate her. Not just because any life she had existed in my head, and I rather liked the story I told myself, but like..

She’s wasn’t stupid on purpose. (She isn’t anything on purpose, to be fair.) 

Sometimes we just do not get stuff, and I think God might be unhappy about it, but not every mistake is intentional. Sometimes we blunder about, and get it right eventually. I think God might have rather more patience than I give Him credit for.

——

A few years later, I was playing a Minecraft modpack called Agrarian Skies 2.

(Modpacks are what I like to call “custom content”. It’s stuff that the player base makes, and shares with others.)

Anyway. The story behind AS2 was that the world was wrecked all except for your little teeny floating island in a whoooole lot of nothing. 

This is a very different experience from a typical Minecraft playthrough. In single player, Minecraft can feel a little empty, but it’s got nothing on the potential loneliness of a skyblock playthrough.

There is nothing. No cows mooing, no villagers running around looking like Squidward, nothing. And it takes long enough to get the supplies to make farms, and places for different creatures to pop in to existence. Enough that when you see the first farm animal, you are really happy to see it. (Or at least I was.)

This is where I should mention that this modpack has a thing that makes the farm animals bitey/hostile.

But I realized something, in the midst of this experience of bitey farm animals. And I pondered the same thing with the Sim family in the midst of writing this.

God still loves us. Even when we’re like some bitey Minecraft cow, He’s like “Yay! My kid. I love them. I want to care for them and give them help and support. They are entirely loved just as they are.”

(I mean…I don’t think God might speak quite that informally/colloquially, but I hope you get what I mean.)

And that’s what I still wanted to do, even after watching a pen of sheep all collect on one side trying to bite me. Protect them from being eaten by a wolf (by never setting up the conditions for one to turn up, I think.). Feed them. Get the wool and make stuff.

I realized that God wanted to be kind and loving, even when we, his spirit children aren’t those things at all.

—

I’ve shared the Minecraft part of this in a Fast and Testimony meeting some time ago, but I felt I should share this online.

Maybe it’s because somebody needs it. Maybe that someone is you?

Maybe it’s because I have a hard time actually getting to church. (Chronic illness. It is…unfun.)

But hi Internet. Here’s a thing that I thought of, that maybe someone is asking for.

Even if it’s just me, then it was worth the effort. If it’s you, then I am happy to brighten things for you.

I think that experiences like these are totally possible, presuming the game is clean enough for the Spirit to be there. 

I think that video games and their characters matter. That’s because the people who carry their story of Bessie the cow or Mary, the mother of many, matter. Video games don’t have to be useless fluff, and in fact they can teach you a lot. Or let you make a story. 

Mary may have no life outside the one you carry in your mind. She is 1s and 0s, just numbers.

But you, my dear. You are real. Your feelings are real, even if Mary, her toddler, and her puzzling behavior are just code. A scene, empty of thought, still affects you, because you are that thought.

And those thoughts exist. And since you matter, so do they.

Books and plays and other ways of sharing stories have existed for a long time. People who have no lives outside the mind of many..or one, still can soften hearts, and strengthen feeble knees.

Video games are just as capable of that. 

<3 Windy/WJRP

[wjrp]

Unique in All the World

(written 22 April 2021 9:04pm and 5 August 2:49pm)

unique in all the world, you are no matter what you do, you are wings flashing in the night, I see you you’re a precious treasure unique in all the world, I see you and I love you

It was sunset, like this, wasn’t it?

unique in all the world, you are no matter what you do, you are wings flashing in the night, I see you you’re a precious treasure unique in all the world, I see you and I love you

It’s not subtle, that pain, it can’t be like rollercoasters racing through you such heavy walls crashing on you daytime’s fire and and one night’s cold flicker

a shattered wail cars crashing to bits a city, block, home falls and where do we go?

unique in all the world, you are no matter what you do, you are wings flashing in the night, I see you you’re a precious treasure unique in all the world, I see you and I love you

©2023 Windy Johansen (wjrp)

[wjrp]

I Believe ~soaring~

(written 26 January 2019 at 8:33pm)

will you qualify? flying in the air floating flowers floating, beckoning

does it need to be a secret? can’t we show what it really is? can’t we live truthfully?

I believe in sound because it affects me I believe in your sound I believe in your sound I believe in you I believe, I believe

please don’t quantify what is in the air floating flowers floating, beckoning

does it need to be a secret? can’t we show what it really is? can’t we live truthfully?

I believe in love because it affects me I believe in your life I believe in your love I believe in you I believe, I believe

life, love, sound, song I believe, I believe life, love, sound, soul soaring, I believe

I believe in sound because it affects me I believe in your sound I believe in your sound I believe in you I believe, I believe

I believe in love because it affects me I believe in your life I believe in your love I believe in you I believe, I believe

life, love, sound, song I believe, I believe life, love, sound, soul soaring, I believe

©2023 Windy Johansen (wjrp)

[wjrp]

Showing us all that a technical victory like that isn’t always the win we think it is.

A fifth panel would maybe show the snail getting punched in the face, if I were writing it.

I do not actually punch others in their faces for this, though! Nor do I think you should. Percussive maintenance doesn’t work on people.

sad

[wjrp]

To the Mountain I Go

(written 6 May 2016 at 5am and 4 August 2023 at 2:57pm)

driven on a road the path blooms before me and the road shakes the road breaks, it shatters oh, is it this again does what I do matter?

another hard road looms

and yet up the mountain I go clearly I’m weak I know my eyes need clarity I know my ears need Thee

I can barely breathe in this chokingly grimy air

so to the mountain I go it’s clear; I need Thee in each shaky step in evr’y shaky step

singing in the clouds the path reaches, just for me and the road heals the road reveals, unveils oh, can I hope again do I escape this gale?

another dazed day teaches

and yet up the mountain I go clearly I’m weak I know my eyes need clarity I know my ears need Thee

I can barely breathe in this chokingly grimy air

so to the mountain I go it’s clear; I need Thee in each shaky step in evr’y shaky step

another hard road looms another dazed day teaches I can barely breathe in this chokingly grimy air so to the mountain I go….

©2023 Windy Johansen (wjrp)