One of the many upsides of having teens in the house is the constant opportunity for self-improvement. Our lacunae are pointed out on a daily basis, which is super helpful. My knowledge base is a frequent target and I readily acknowledge some serious gaps, for example, history. Did I just pay no attention in this set of classes when growing up? But at this stage of the game, where would one even start? You get the idea.
Yesterday morning, our daughter rolled down for her breakfast and said, “Did you watch the Josh fight?”
Jonathan/me: The what?
Lucy: The Josh fight (this time spoken more slowly).
Jonathan/me: Is this a Minecraft thing?
Lucy: (deep sigh) No! THE—JOSH—FIGHT
Me: So those three words together still carry absolutely no more meaning than they did the first time. Can you just tell us what you are talking about?
Well – as those of you who are au courant already know, the Josh fight was a pool noodle battle extravaganza organized by one Josh Swain to be held in Nebraska among people whose first name was Josh. Here is a screenshot of the screenshot (repeat many times) of the text thread that kicked this off:
For those who haven’t gone down this rabbit hole yet, there are actually a number of very entertaining YouTube videos of the battle, the winner of which (as every teen and with-it person will know) was an adorable four-year-old. Just to give you some notion of this, here is a link from a news station that even gives you a little breakdown of the event:
This whimsical, nonsensical event felt very American in the best sense, somehow.
But just when you catch up on one thing and feel good about that, you get…
“Did you watch the red banquet?” (Dream SMP* reference, for those who were similarly bamboozled).
Back to square one…
*SMP = survival Multi-player; Dream is a Minecraft player/coder who lives in Florida, hides his identity behind a smiley face mask, and who created a narrative/streaming ongoing Minecraft plot that millions (literally) of people, including my daughter, watch.
Up in the air 