Fawkes

For Christmas my son gave me an XBox 360 game: Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition.

Really an addictive game. Wandering through the wasteland around Washington DC a couple hundred years in the future.

A lot of the decisions that you make affect the course of the game and how it plays out. You can be good or bad or neutral (karma in the game).

At one point you will come across a character named Fawkes. Depending on your karma he may be recruited to help you out in the future.

I am not really good at video games and tend to die a lot (think it has to do with the fact that I was in college when Pong came out). But it sure makes it a lot easier to have Fawkes along with me during this game.

He has saved me from a lot of grief along the way so far. The big guy can carry whatever I give him. And he has unlimited ammo. And his thick skin lets him take a lot of damage. And he tends to see danger before I do. He's got my back.

Now I realize that this is just a video game and Fawkes is just a figment of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) of the game engine.

But it really points out just how tough it is to "go it alone." Having someone to rely on is valuable.

Kind of like life. God did not make us to go it alone, he made us to live in community with others. This includes not only our spouse and kids, but other members of our families and our friends and others. Life is easier in community

We will still have challenges and trials and things won't go the way we want to go. But having others that we can rely on when things get tough can make all the difference.

Oh, sure, Fawkes can be annoying at times. He makes the same stupid Zen comments that don't make sense, over and over and he blocks the door all too often when I am trying to get out of a room.

But it sure is handy to have him around to help me get over my mistakes...