Mind Over Movie

Games are almost always on my mind. I'm convinced they are a better way to spend time in a group than almost anything else, so when a co-worker stopped by today and told me about his trip to see The Transporter 3, I challenged his convictions.
First, I probed him to make sure that he wasn't some ultra movie-fanatic, or even that he just thought movies were a lot of fun. "Do you go to movies because you are really into them or do you just go because there isn't a lot else to do?" (We live in a relatively small college town where lack of things to do spurs a lack of creativity, which in turn spurs a lack of things to do.) He replied, "Nah, mostly just something to do." Success!
Second, I piqued his interest by explaining that there could be more creative ways to spend time and money. "You know Brian (his name was Brian--still is, actually), something I've gotten into recently is playing new board games. They're a good way to connect with people and pretty economical too." "What like Risk?" "No..." "Jenga? Scrabble?" "No, no...more like..." "Monopoly?" "No definitely not! ... Hey! Why don't I just show you!" By this point he was curious, so I probably could have shown him anything. After all, most Americans are pretty oblivious to the fact that there could be any other board games out there besides the games they learned growing up. Any aberration is quite a novelty.
Step three, then, was to show him some pictures online from places like board game geek. The good thing about Eurogames is that their looks speak for themselves, and they are warrant at least a second glance if not also serious consideration. Plus, once I had him looking at pictures of games I had to summarize and explain some basic rules and embellish some examples of why Eurogames are worth the money.
Brian seemed interested enough, but it was three in the morning, so he could have just been lacking the energy to interrupt my tireless rant. I like to think that I opened his mind to a whole new world of activities--that I inspired him to go see for himself. Brian is just one person, but I believe that every person is important. Maybe he will buy a game and someday when his friends ask him to go see yet another meaningless movie, he will offer a different suggestion, and pass the word on to the next person...and the next.