Tonight I hosted a hang-out night with friends of mine for the second time in six months (I intend to do them more frequently, but then I get busy doing unimportant things and the next thing I know half a year has gone by). The only rule we had was No Girls Allowed–well, that rule plus all the ones we live by being Christian men and following God’s commandments.

Last time we watched “The Bourne Supremacy” with Matt Damon, which was a good guy’s movie, then we played video games on my somewhat dated systems. This time, however, we skipped the movie and played games all night, which was fine with me! I have an 8-bit Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, and a Sega Genesis. We played lots of games and ate pizza:

Mark, James, and Adam eating pizza

Philip and Dominic

I have played most of these games since I was a boy and invested WAY too many hours on them. The bad thing about that is that I could be really good at playing a musical instrument or be a black belt in kung fu. The good thing is that I am pretty good at old console games, especially the ones I own.

We all played the classic Super Mario Bros., and after gleefully showing the guys how to get “mega-men” on level 3-1 by bouncing the turtle shell of the koopa-troopa against the stairsteps, I managed to win the game and save the princess (note to my future wife: Won’t you be proud that your husband can beat Super Mario Bros. and save the damsel in distress? :). How did I accomplish such an heroic feat of gamesmanship? By living strong:

Livestrong!

My friends and I had very good conversation and spoke of things that really mattered in our lives (in addition to the silly stuff that naturally arises from playing games like Dr. Mario). Thanks be to our amazing God for blessing us with such friends, with such joy, and with a life of love. Adam is married and has an 18-month old girl, and I asked him what I should be appreciating more as a single Catholic man (coming from his perspective as a relatively new husband and father). He said I should appreciate the time I have to do what I want to do, as that time will be much more restricted once I am married and have a child especially (God willing).

At the same time he said that the most valuable things take sacrifice and humility, and so marriage and fatherhood offers one of the most valuable things that God has created, for they require tremendous amounts of these virtues.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!