seeing is believing

The teen had taken over the TV. He was watching first-person action-cam footage of dirt bike jumps. “Wow, this really makes me want to play a video game about racing dirt bikes,” I teased him. Then I went silent. I frowned. Later, while throwing Aerobies with the tyke outside, I’d gone silent again. I guess she’d asked me a question, but I didn’t hear her. “Sorry,” I said to her, “I was just thinking.” I was thinking about how I’d never broken a bone before. Too scared to risk life and limb for anything, I’d been thinking to myself darkly, willing to accept a simulation of an experience instead. I’d been thinking about my aversion to injury. I’d been thinking about my real-life fear of rollercoasters, contrasted with my enjoyment of VR rollercoasters. I’d been thinking about the time I’d misspoken to my grandfather, a pilot. I’d made the wild, spurious claim that Microsoft Flight Simulator was “just like flying a real plane,” and I was remembering how angry my grandfather had gotten:…