Deep in the dungeons of our hearts is a child

Running, screaming, beating against the walls of propriety

Wondering why we don’t play imagination games

Anymore

Blink away adulthood and remember the days

When bunkbeds were spaceships, and a stick was a blade

The fabric of reality faded into stories of heroism and

Togetherness

That child remembers the secrets of shared stories

The secrets of living alternative lives through play

At the apex of joy and creation, of truth and identity and

Ineffability

Enter Dungeons and Dragons, the Ambassador of TTRPGs

They offer an unlikely outlet for that child, a treaty

With which to bridge adulthood and unbounded youth in

Adventure

While spaceship bunkbeds won’t pay the bills

Content and responsibility don’t have a monopoly on life

Sometimes, you have to adventure as an elf to understand

Living

Those who don’t value play don’t value life or growth or love

For there is nothing like the untamed magic of shared creation

An electric thrumming that is both palpable and unbelievable

And cathartic

By living another life through another body in our own mind

We learn the lessons that our mentors failed to teach us

Like how to listen, grow patience, or experience empathy for

Half-orcs

We have a playground with which to explore our moralities

To work through our real hardships and learn to move on

Perhaps we even become a better person for freeing the child

Unsurprising

Critics will diminish the validity of shared stories with problems

Rooted in reality, unknowing that the answers rest within

The Narrative, which grows and unfolds just like a life

Besides

How cool is it to slay dragons and crush flagons with friends?

So, let that kid out of the dungeon and order pizza for dinner

Maybe there’s wisdom we forget that we once knew in youth