Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Game Fatale

I had a long and involved dream about buying Warhammer for the store.

Warhammer is a very detailed tabletop game, involving miniatures. Think of the movies with the wacky English lord moving armies across a table landscape, and you get the picture. The games and figures are relatively expensive, but also kind of cool. You paint them, and then play them.

But they aren't a small commitment, in time or space or money. And basically, I don't think I can do them. There has always been someone in town who has taken on this task, and more power to them. Unless I intend to play the game myself, which I can't imagine, I'm better off letting someone else do it.

The store in the dream was nothing like the real store. The Warhammer game in the dream was nothing like the real game.

So what was the message of the dream?

There was an interesting quote in today's paper about gardening. A 70 year old gardener is talking about 'simplifying' , but can't seem to cut back on the plants she buys. (I heard my Mom talking about cutting back for years, but she never could...)

"We talk about simplifying, but the whole joy of gardening is being creative. And creativity usually means adding."

What I find in my store is that adding also forces me to be creative about the rest of my store. And that I'm generally unhappy just resting on my product, no matter how extensive it is.

Warhammer has always been enticing. Like a beautiful dame who's clearly dangerous.

Given enough time space and money, I probably would attempt it. But it isn't possible.

There's enough going on in my store to stay creative, so my subconscious needs to get real.

Get real, sub-conscious!

5 comments:

Leitmotiv said...

Your dream is probably not directly about Warhammer. It sounds like tackling things that are too big for you.

Often I find that dreams are pun-laden. Play around with the themes of your dream and see if they are a play on words.

Shortly after my dad died, I had a dream that I met my dad under a bridge to say goodbye. Later, I realized that he was "crossing over." Hence, the bridge symbolism. I also think that it was possibly a reconciliation too, as in it's all "water under the bridge."

Kind of like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure! "All we are is dust in the wind, dude!"

Duncan McGeary said...

Well, I think the fun of the store has always been in the discovering, the reinventing.

The dream was saying: what spectacular change can you make to turn things around?

Pulling a rabbit (hit game) out of a hat.

But, to me, there is also a great satisfaction of making do within limitations.

I'm not sure, actually, I agree the creativity involves adding. I saw an artist on Charlie Rose, (Glenn Close) who made the case that limitation is the source of creativity.

I couldn't help but think of George Lucas, who created great movies with a limited budget, and crappy movies with an unlimited budget.

Duncan McGeary said...

I need another cup of coffee. Glenn Close, sheeesh.

His name was Chuck Close.

Liz said...

We had an interesting conversation about Warhammer today...it's a huge time and money sink.

Does Bend have the kind of gamers that can support that money sink? ;)

Duncan McGeary said...

Hi, liz.

Yeah, I've been tempted in the past, but every time I got closer to doing it, it would look more and more like a problem. So I'd back off...

So I'm not really tempted, anymore.