As I enjoyed my twelve day Christmas/New Year’s holiday, I came to the conclusion that I simply don’t have enough time in each day to do the things I want to do in life. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the things I do, I don’t mean that at all.

It just means that as I get older and have more responsibilities, I also have more intentions and wants. I want to spend time doing things with my family, watching movies and television, listening to music, playing games, enjoying various hobbies, going on trips and vacations, playing with my dog, etc.

But then I realize there are only 24 hours in a day and frankly, sleep and work aren’t as optional as they were in my youth.

Read on to see why my wife might take offense to the twist this post is going to take…

This all got me to thinking about that hypothetical “trapped on a deserted island with one item” situation, which led to me thinking about a “videogame vacation” (which would never fly in the real world for various reasons, but since it’s MY imagination, I gave it some thought).

Instead of the 15-30 minutes here and there, would it be better to save them all up and have 4-8 hours at a time? Why stop there… if I could save up all those 4-8 hours chunks, could I have 5-6 days worth of gaming? Think bigger… should I save all the possible spare time I can and have weeks or months of non-stop gaming?

The thought of saving an accumulating time brought me back to a particularly personal and special period of my life. My wife and I have been together over 20 years now; we were high school sweethearts (yeah, I love that phrase too… *sigh*) but we were almost pulled apart when her parents moved out of state before she had graduated.

At that time Jim Croce’s “Time In A Bottle” was an especially heartfelt song… our song. We eventually overcame our long distance situation and our love prevailed. As I look back specifically at those lyrics, I see they were referencing “you”, not a specific gender or person (which is a true hallmark of a timeless song; add loads of “feeling”, but keep it generic enough to apply to everyone forever).

At this point, if my wife’s reading this, I’d like to ask you to stop. Otherwise, I’ll likely be sleeping on the couch tonight and as comfortable as the couch is, I’d prefer not to sleep there (at night; mid-day naps are A-okay!).

For you see, the generic nature of the lyrics also lend themselves to applying to *gulp* a videogame console. You young whipper-snapper gamers might find this stupid and “old folky”, but trust me… as you get older, time goes by faster and you’ll find you have less and less time to do the things you want to do as the things you HAVE to do increase.

Now I’m not saying the lyrics lend themselves perfectly, or won’t make you seem extremely pathetic if you’re caught singing them to your Xbox 360 or PS3, but let’s just check some of them out:

“If I could save time in a bottle, The first thing that Id like to do, Is to save every day, Till eternity passes away, Just to spend them with you.” Yeah, it seems a little excessive, I’ll admit that. But if you’ve already got a mate (not of the Australian variety) and your connection with them is a given (they may even be a gamer as well), then you might both feel strongly enough about gaming that this isn’t such a stretch.

“If I could make days last forever, If words could make wishes come true, I’d save every day like a treasure and then, Again, I would spend them with you.” Okay, well, I might’ve felt that way about a game or two over the years… it was a fad. It wore off. But again, not beyond reason.

“But there never seems to be enough time, To do the things you want to do, Once you find them.” Damn! That’s spot on! Croce was a genius!

“I’ve looked around enough to know, That you’re the one I want to go, Through time with.” Well, I’m not console-monogamous, but that sound like someone that clearly evaluated all the pros and cons of the various consoles could legitimately say that line in all truthfulness.

“If I had a box just for wishes, And dreams that had never come true. The box would be empty, Except for the memory, Of how they were answered by you.” You see, that’s the power of well done games. They fulfill your wishes and dreams. Where else in “reality” can you fight giant mushrooms and turtles by stomping on them, or collecting stars while flying through the galaxy without a space suit? Your box of wishes, that’s where!

“But there never seems to be enough time, To do the things you want to do, Once you find them. I’ve looked around enough to know, That you’re the one I want to go, Through time with.” Not only are those the final lyrics of the song, they’re SO true they needed to be included twice.

I’m sure that if Jim Croce were still alive, he’d be a hardcore gamer. It’s as plain as day to me.

NOTE TO SELF: Pick up some candles on the way home (for mood lighting), get some Earl Grey tea to relax my vocal chords, buy movie tickets for the rest of the family, find my silk robe and prepare to serenade my <insert mystery console’s name here>. I suggest you all do the same… unless you have a better song to serenade your console with. If so, please share it with us!

…now that I think about it, Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock!” isn’t a bad choice either…

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