A MAN'S HOME IS HIS CASTLE

There was a time when that was true. Not any more.

A man in his home would have a place of refuge from the world. He could hide from the worries of life, safe and secure with his wife and children by his side. His home provided a place to ward off the marauding hordes of Visigoths and Huns, Barbarians and Mongols, Indians and desperados, traveling missionaries and cable TV representatives.

But not all dangers are outside the walls of a man’s castle. Some rise up unexpectedly from within. Thanks to the Internet and Facebook there are dangers that can separate a man from his family; from his wife, from his son, and from his daughter who has her own castle.

My wife is on Facebook and some friend invited her to play a game on the net. That in itself is not bad but my wife has shared that interest with others. Now our daughter is playing the game. But worse than that, right here in my so called castle, our son has joined in.

I am not part of the group. I am an outcast in my own castle. My wife and son sit on the couch playing the game and discussing strategies, sending information and game pieces filled with energies and potions to other gamers. While my wife and son are bonding in their shared love of the game, and my daughter is joining in from the other side of town, I wonder if this digital intruder can be driven from my castle.

I don’t know that the intruder, this game they play, can be defeated. All I can do is sit in the living room and listen to the plotting and planning as they build whatever they are building.

The website for the game they are playing has this promotion:

Create your Happy Ending
Build your very own Kingdom in a magical land.
Banish the Gloom and nasty Beasties while you’re at it.

While they are building their CastleVille, my castle walls are crumbling around me. John Wayne and Fess Parker had a better chance of defeating Santa Anna at the Alamo than I do in banishing the Gloom and nasty Beasties from my castle.

Bring on the marauding hordes! The enemy I can see…