Celebration of the 7 Seasons of the X-Box

A sophomoric boy crying over his lost toy? Or a profound loss to grieve?

I recently sold my xbox on ebay. Played it with Nick for about 4 years. Paid about $300 for it and all the games, and sold it for about $75 minus shipping. Therefore we lost about $225 dollars on it. Considering we played it maybe 1000 hours (or more?), and split the cost, that means that this hobby cost us about 11 cents per hour (225/2 = 112.5 / 1000 = 11 cents). That is a pretty darned affordable hobby.

But the dollar signs don't even tell half the story.

Ok, this post is a full blown nerd post, no getting around it. Each of the 7 games in the picture represented a phase in life, a period of personal growth, a cornerstone. Well, that might be going to far, but we did seem to play a given game for about 6 months and so seeing the pictures brings back vivid memories of stuff happening in that time of life....meeting leila...big winter storms.....cheese steak sandwiches at the fox and hound. not to mention the sheer bliss of playing 6 hour stretches without any consequences. Or, if there were consequences, to hell with them anyway.

The X-Box to some may seem like teenager nonsense. But to me it represented adventure, teamwork, risk, reward, recreation, comradery, masculinity, and a bunch of other really cool words. Perhaps that's why they are so popular. If this post sounds like a eulogy, thats because it is. Although I would like to think that I'll have another Xbox one day, logic says I most certainly won't. Or if I do, it will be Judah's, and it won't be the same season. So, while this post may seem silly, it is actually quite heavy hearted as saying goodbye to a sweet fragrance that will never again be experienced. At this point the X-box is sitting in someone else's house about 2000 miles away, and there ain't no getting it back. The finality of it is obfuscating.

Looking back on the xbox days, I suppose it could seem like a sad memory, because it is over. But I choose to see it as a happy memory. No season lasts forever, even the best of seasons ends. A good friend of mine, Clint, says that life is just a series of seasons and you should never compare them lest you be unfairly juxtaposing creatures of different species. Which is better, winter or summer? That is a stupid question. They are not even comparable. And when we die, all of our seasons will be old memories, and that's it. In fact, I could go off on a philosophical trail about time and how it really is the "currency of life." But, I think I'll just leave it at a gentle nostalgic glance into a season that will be pretty darned hard to match.

(For authenticity and historical purposes, here is the e-bay auction of the beloved xbox. Note that this link will self destruct in about 3 months. Ebay only keeps old auctions active for a few months. Perhaps e-bay understands the fading of seasons better than one might guess? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280316337845 )