And when playing a game, the question is not how to overcome that structure, but how to subject oneself to it … the play is in the thing not in us.*
Ian Bogost

The hunger will give you everything. And it will take from you everything. It will cost you your life and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. But knowing this, of course, is what sets you free.**
Hugh Macleod

Actually, you did sign up for this,
It’s the tough reality that follows the
inciting imagination;
Your desire to pursue your must requires deep immersion,
When we want to hold back, we must lean in
with our skills, knowledge, and heart –
Counterintuitively, this forward, galloping tilt is what brings us
freedom, as Dan Ariely personally testifies:
My dark sense of helplessness receded a little.
In its place,
like a glimmer of light,
was an old friend: curiosity. After all,
I’m a social scientist.^

There will be more to learn, more enabling along the way,
But first of all you must trust what brought you here:
If it’s your truth,
you can’t not do it, and
that knowledge
carries you through.^^

*Ian Bogost’s Play Anything;
**Hugh Macleod’s Evil Plans;
^Dan Ariely’s Misbelief;
^^Parker Palmer, from Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise.