{"id":128,"date":"2012-04-01T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/game-of-thrones\/"},"modified":"2012-04-01T22:43:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T22:43:00","slug":"game-of-thrones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/game-of-thrones.html","title":{"rendered":"Game of Thrones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Yeah, I know \u2013 two entertainment-themed posts in a little over a week is a bit much for somebody who says he doesn\u2019t pay attention to popular culture. But there are exceptions, and \u201cGame of Thrones<\/a>\u201d is one of them. <\/p>\n

As with The Hunger Games<\/i><\/a>, I haven\u2019t read the books \u2013 most of my reading is non-fiction<\/a>. But the promos for the HBO series looked good and I figured I\u2019d give it a try. Although I was expecting more magic and less politics, I got hooked pretty quickly. I enjoyed last year\u2019s first season and was parked in front of the TV for tonight\u2019s second season premiere.<\/p>\n

Any story is only as good as its characters and author George R. R. Martin<\/a> has created some memorable ones. The characters I find myself drawn to all share one thing in common \u2013 they\u2019re dealt some lousy hands, but they play them well. <\/p>\n

Tyrion Lannister is born a dwarf in an environment that values physical strength. He uses his mind and his wit to stay alive. He told Jon Snow \u201ca mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daenerys Targaryen was essentially sold by her brother as a bride to Khal Drogo. She made the Khal love her, tried to save him from an infected wound and ended up hatching dragons in his funeral fire. The shy little girl is now a queen in her own right.<\/p>\n

Arya Stark didn\u2019t like the options a girl had in a patriarchical society. With the help of her brother and father, she acquired a sword and learned to fence. Now she\u2019s headed for the Wall disguised as an orphan boy. <\/p>\n

The world of \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d is harsh and unforgiving. It\u2019s not a place you\u2019d want to live, unless you like playing high-stakes politics for blood. But the characters are real \u2013 a few are good, a few are bad, and most are just trying to do what they have to do to get by. Some of them are doing that quite well.<\/p>\n

Back here in the ordinary world, that\u2019s a lesson we need to hear a little more often. We like to tell ourselves \u201cyou can be anything you want to be if you just want it badly enough.\u201d I was never going to be a professional athlete, no matter how badly I wanted it (and trust me, as a young boy I wanted it badly<\/i>) \u2013 I didn\u2019t have the physical gifts. Most of us aren\u2019t born rich, we aren\u2019t geniuses, and we do things that turn out to be \u201cbad choices\u201d even though we didn\u2019t realize they were choices when we did them. <\/p>\n

But if we have a bit of wisdom, at some point we face reality. The mainstream world has told us we\u2019re \u201cnot good enough\u201d for them, but we realize their opinion has only the value we assign to it. We accept ourselves for who we are, what we are, and where we are. We stop worrying about what we don\u2019t have, pick up our books, or our swords, or our dragon eggs and begin the process of making the most of what we do have.<\/p>\n

With some hard work, cleverness and determination \u2013 and a bit of luck \u2013 we can turn that into something quite nice. And in the process, we can find true success<\/a>: doing what we\u2019re called to do while we do what we have to do.<\/p>\n

Bring on the dragons!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I know \u2013 two entertainment-themed posts in a little over a week is a bit much for somebody who says he doesn\u2019t pay attention to popular culture. But there are exceptions, and \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d is one of them. As with The Hunger Games, I haven\u2019t read the books \u2013 most of my reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGame of Thrones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yeah, I know \u2013 two entertainment-themed posts in a little over a week is a bit much for somebody who says he doesn\u2019t pay attention to popular culture. 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