Small idea. He's on a bus: a portable moral universe outside of which everything is marked as 'outside'. Or put it this way. Inside the bus individuals can mark out moral extremes and the outside world is a mythical reference point. In the small world the players outline the total moral space. Then the bus's identity - and that of the driver - takes on a significance. You buy yourself easy points with such a framework. God metaphors can be lazy because they have built into them the biggest metaphor of all. Confrontation with a fallible, idiosyncratic, very human God who was supposed to be all grownuplike is the nasty 20th century's gift to us.
Small idea. Games create microworlds in which total knowledge and understanding are possible. They share this possibility with the theatre, the novel. For some reason film doesn't seem to play this way. Images lie. In any case fictional setpieces involving gameplay can create weird resonances: the play of simple shapes or something.
Small idea. When someone dies everything tumbles toward the space they filled. To obliterate its absence. We turn the dead into metaphors. The dead do the same to all of us - but only for a time.
Small idea. Being shown and understanding are not the same thing. It's possible to obtain the let's call it emotional equipment to deal with a crisis without actually putting it to use right then.
Small idea. When someone is on the other side of your emotional crisis - i.e. when they've come through safely and are watching you - you see the world moving too quickly or too slowly. It reflects a literary will you might say; everything is easier to deal with as metaphor. But they see you at your actual speed, and your flailing no doubt seems comical to them, or sad, or defensive. It is an opportunity for them to see you fully human. As Ann Lamott was told: 'Pay close attention to her now. She's teaching you how to live.' It is an opportunity for you, similarly, to be seen in your full humanity. You must remember to take lessons from that. Those not wasting their time with false sympathy can offer you priceless understanding - unutterable at any other moment perhaps.
Big idea. He's on a bus. And when the kid says to him hey do you know any good games what he's asking is are you down deep down in the dark there and he does himself a tiny favour by saying yes.
