The philosiphy of self sacrifice as taught to me by my 2 year old son.

I love games so much that I'd be lying if I told you I could narrow it down to one(though i will try someday). I'll spare you the long list of my favorites and focus on the one that has the best story to accompany it. Every gamer grew up with Mario and then Super Mario World came out for the Super Nintendo. It set the new standard for platformers. Much like wine it seems to only get better with age. I think it would be a safe bet that I'm not the only one who fell in love with Yoshi. It may have even been part of the reason it was so popular. Not to mention the cape, I mean all hero's should wear a cape, right? Anyway I vividly remember playing it for the first time and being blown away. The colors, the graphics, even the music were all beautiful. Most of all though, I just couldn't get over how cool Yoshi was. He was instantly my best friend. I would get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I got hit while riding him and he'd run away. And then came the level that I had to jump off of Yoshi's back sending him to certain death so that I could reach the finish line. At the time my gaming reflexes surpassed my decision making speed so I literally lept before I looked and when I realized what I had done I cried like a baby. It broke my heart that I killed my best friend. It didn't matter that he came back on the next life because it flattened me that I had even done it. I was 8 years old at the time. At age 33 I had my first son, my youngest of 3. The night he was born I brought a SNES into my wife's hospital room and while she slept I held my son, Ransom-Kingdom, and introduced him to what would become his favorite pastime: Gaming!

This is him at 10 months on the left and 2 years on the right

That was his first expierence with Super Mario World but not his last. Last year, at the age of 2, Ransom-Kingdom was playing the game while I watched. By that point he was beginning to make sense of, learn from and understand what's happening in the games he plays. So who ends up being his favorite? Yoshi. He's playing as I watched and all he seemed to care about was riding Yoshi. Beating the levels didn't hold his attention near as much everyone's favorite green dinosaur did. So while I'm watching him ride Yoshi I see him get hit by a flying turtle Mario falls off, Yoshi takes off running and before he could get to him Yoshi mindlessly lept off a ledge to his death. Ransom-Kingdom knew that falling off ledges was death (even though he doesn't fully understand the concept in real life). But what does he do? He leaps off after him and let's himself die. I watched him get a concerned look on his face and then take the jump. Wondering if it had been a mistake I asked him "why did you do that bubba?" To which he responded, "Yoshi fall down, I fall down with Yoshi". I burst into tears and he looked like he was really worried then he said "I did bad daddy?" I hugged him and said "no bubba you did good, you saved your best friend". Family can teach you things you never knew. When a friend or loved one falls you go to help them, no matter the consequences. I love my all my kids for more reasons than i could write in a lifetime but the day a child taught me such a deep lesson i couldnt have love him more. I also love Super Mario World because it taught me that at the age of only 2 years old my son is already a better man than I'll ever be.

I hope you enjoyed my tale as much as i enjoyed telling it.

Now get out there and have a spectacular day.