A friend once recollected that I played Pokemon Red incorrectly; I couldn't argue the point. The object of the game was in the motto - gotta catch 'em all - but I insisted on catching only those that would make my predetermined final battle lineup: Venusaur, Dugtrio, Gengar, Alakazam, Gyarados, Arcanine; I ignored the rest. I optimized my play to ensure the strongest possible version of that team; I learned nothing about collecting.
Building teams, emphasizing strengths, planning on top of plans - the Gameboy was a practice field for my current collection of skills; the most important of all was ignoring the official purpose to find my own motivation. I've been reading James Baldwin's The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, essays that promise lessons on race, democracy, and identity; I've learned mostly about prose, specifically the way Baldwin connects the reader from point to point, clause to clause; the semicolon is the unsung guide. Writer meets semicolon, semicolon meets writer; the future bleeds from the present. I'm better equipped now to connect ideas as they wander by; I've never been this interested in catching them all.
