Video games seem to be the great obsession of many teenagers these days, at least it is for our fifteen-year-old son. If he were to be paid an hourly wage for all of the time he spends playing video games he would be earning a fortune. Like most parents, his mother and I have attempted to monitor the amount of time he spends playing these games, but often to no avail. Regardless of the consequence or disciplinary action we take, our son seems to have a knack for circumventing the system to locate, acquire and engage in his video game addiction. Of course, such an addiction can become very expensive. Especially when the video game addict has the tendency to "forget" to bring the video game back to the video store and late fees are added.
Recently, when my wife discovered the eyebrow raising late fees that had accrued because our son had forgotten one more time to return the video game, she decided that enough was enough. She would change the password to the account so our son could no longer rent video games. So, off to the video store we went. However, what happened next was one of those odd conversations that left me scratching my head.
Speaking to the video store clerk my wife announced, "My son has late fees for video games again! I want to change the password to our account."
"What would you like the password to be?" the clerk asked.
"Figure it out." My wife answered.
"Well the password is currently Jesus" the clerk informed her.
"Jesus doesn't work any more" my wife responded.
"There goes the church" I chided.
"Well, what would you like the password to be?" the clerk asked again.
"Figure it out" my wife responded.
"Jesus doesn't work anymore?" the clerk asked.
"No. Jesus doesn't work any more. Figure it out." My wife replied.
"O.K., Jesus doesn't work any more. So, what do you want the password to be?"
"Figure it out" my wife told him again.
"You want me to just make one up?" the clerk asked.
"No" my wife replied. "The password is... 'figure it out'."
"Oh!" the clerk said, finally understanding. "Figure it out."
"Yes!" My wife replied, "Figure it out! Jesus doesn't work any more."
As we laughed and left the video store my heart sank with the profound truth that had been spoken. Perhaps the current teenage obsession with video games is evidence that 'Jesus doesn't work any more' for youth. Just figure it out.
© 2007 Mark Parsec
