Ever read Xenophon? He's a Greek historian. I've been working my way through his "Anabasis", a story of how he helped lead 10,000 Greek mercenaries stranded in the middle of the Persian Empire to safety. Even though it almost 2,500 years old, the book reads like a novel. Someone seriously needs to do a film adaptation of it... You also get a really rich picture of what it meant to "be Greek". It's a great book for teaching a crash course in the mindset of the average Greek, as opposed to Plato and Aristotle. You also come away with the impression that Greeks are such barbarians compared to the Persians. Xenophon didn't see it that way, but a little reading between the lines makes it quite apparent. The Platypus recommends Xenophon. Obey your Platypus...
I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old. That's a couple years after it first came out. The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer. I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit. It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows. With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play. What was that first game? It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past . Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge. It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing? There were stretches when I didn't. Many times, I've just been too busy. There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....
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