Super-Better

So one thing that comes to me as I sit on my kitchen chair is the NewYorker Magazine. I was interested in an article this week that proposed the idea that we treat our lives as trumped up video games. This idea comes from a book called Super-Better by Jane McGonigal. And it goes something like this: having a hard day? Turn it into a challenge, collect and activate power-ups, identify bad guys and battle them, seek and complete quests, recruit allies, adopt a secret identity, go for an epic win.

In almost every way this is contrary to my mission of letting my magnificence flow through me. It reeks of trying too hard. Of constantly having to have your brain turned on. Got stood up on a date? Find the bad guy. Big Bad Insecurity Monster (not the guy that stood  you up, darn). Battle him (Insecurity Monster not the guy) with bubble bath and new date clothes. Gather you allies (friends) to gain support. Find another challenge (Date). Adopt a secret identity--that of a nice person? Go for the Epic win--Sex, Marriage?

The only thing I can endorse is adopting a secret identity. And not some stupid heroic Captain Chief of PowerPoint. I mean a real secret identity. Whenever things look like they're getting too hard, I pretend I'm Russian. Pre-Communist Tolstoy Russian. A Princess like Natasha in War and Peace. I go about my day doing whatever common chore I have to do but my mind is caught up in my Russian fantasy.

I go to Mrs. Carey's Candy store for a small box of chocolate. I buy a latte. I wear my clothes that are particularly romantic. I change up my rings to be very princessy. I imagine being in a Russian landscape. It's really fun and it doesn't require having to moniter how I'm doing all the time. I can slip easily out of the Russian world at any time to attend to facets of this world. But then I can slip right back into Tolstoy's world and keep looking for those shining moments, like the dancing country people, or the wolf hunt in War and Peace.

The world is full of such wondeful moments. You just have to be primed to witness them. Being Russian helps me be ready to see the beauty that is in that other world which is also in this one.