It’s not easy to be a step-parent. It can be an anxious, uncertain and tenuous task; particularly if you have no children yourself and lack personal experience. But you love your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend. So you break down barriers, building trust and providing value despite the oft-occurring (and often vocalized) distinction that you are definitively not “dad” or “mom.” Now, luckily, most children have yet to be corrupted by the world and are still possessive of the best human qualities such as boundless love and an open heart. These qualities can make it easier to connect, but it still remains a tough task. The most difficult part is looking at this child as more than an extension of your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife or as a responsibility that you “signed up for.” Being a step-parent is about opening your heart and making the effort to build a personal relationship, which is no small feat when you’re dealing with what is essentially a small, tired, and perpetually drunk human.
And if you only see them a few days a week, it can be even harder. With few common interests to stand on aside from television and Lucky Charms, I have been searching for a while for something that would provide me and my step-daughter, Olive, an opportunity to spend some time together. Well, little did I know, the thing that would do it is a new mobile game of a franchise from my childhood I thought had died long ago or, at least, had been usurped by only the nerdiest and neck-beardiest of man-children fighting against the raging onslaught of time. “Pokémon Go,” developed by Niantec (formerly of Alphabet) and published by Nintendo, has become something of a cultural phenomenon in the mere week since its release. It has crossed cultural boundaries and provided a means by which people can get out of their house and connect with fellow fans in real-time within the nostalgia-soaked augmented reality of the game.
As with anything this massively popular, there are detractors. Some have claimed that it’s “un-manly” to play “Pokémon Go,” or that the gameplay is shallow and boring. While I can acknowledge that it lacks the depth and nuance of the original Game Boy “Pokémon,” I don’t see the harm in playing a game that provides some light exercise coupled with the opportunity to meet new people with a common interest; these alone can be monumental tasks for some people to perform of their own volition. There are also some darkly funny stories that have emerged, like trainers that found a dead body while playing, or the one hit by a car crossing the freeway, or the men that fell off a cliff, or the muggers that lingered around Pokéstops and gyms waiting for unfortunate trainers to come by. There’s a man whose house is a gym (without his permission, of course) and has suffered people coming by at all hours of the day and night to train in his front yard. My experience has been mostly positive, aside from some technical rough patches that are par for the course with a game this massively popular. I’ve gotten out of my house, had conversations with strangers, and found a relatively discreet and entertaining method for wasting time at work.
As I alluded to before, perhaps the best thing “Pokémon Go” has done for me is allow me to have fun and connect with Olive. This week, I watched Olive while her mom went to barre class, and we spent the warm summer evenings exploring our neighborhood in Baker catching Pokémon. “Pokémon Go” has allowed us to see the world in the same way for once (albeit through a cellphone screen); a world in which magical creatures exist and people are united under the common banner of catching ‘em all. We talked, walked, played in the park, and she gave me some really excellent advice about quitting smoking. I think it meant a lot to her, and I know it meant a lot to me. When she comes back from her dad’s next weekend, you better believe we will be out again, never resting until our Pokédex is full. And hopefully this time we’ll find something besides Pidgeys and Rattatas.
If you think it’s dumb, don’t play it. But keep your trap shut. Let people enjoy things, you cynical bastards. Not everyone is predisposed for social interaction or physical fitness, and if something simple like this helps them participate, just let them do so with impunity. In the world that we currently occupy, in which people are murdered en masse seemingly every week, I can see the appeal in retreating from reality, dropping your guard a bit, and believing in magic again. Though it’s hard to say how long the Pokécraze will last, I’m glad to be a part of it again and I’m glad that it’s making people happy. We could all use a little more happiness.
