If you watched the Super Bowl this year, you probably saw Microsoft’s heartwarming commercial about children with disabilities using an adaptive Xbox controller to play games with their friends. In case you missed it, here it is:
First of all, these kids are absolute heroes for what they are living with and somehow doing with a smile. Nothing makes you more aware of your own fragility, mortality, and good fortune than observing someone, especially a child, with a major health issue. Owen (in the commercial), for example, is only nine years old and has already had to endure 33 surgeries.
There are many forms of entertainment: movies, music, TV shows, sports, video games, board games, books, and more. It is very, very easy to dismiss all of these things as a luxury or even a waste of time. You’ve heard the argument before: “Imagine if all the money and energy that goes into the entertainment industry were put into something productive, like curing cancer”. This is a seductive, but wrong, argument.
Continue reading “Entertainment Isn’t Dumb”