I don’t know you but I know what you’re feeling right now. I lost my Orange Boy just a few weeks ago and even this weekend I still felt it. I wish I could share more comfort with you, fellow person. I can share this quote by Kate Braestrup that comforts me in times of loss:
Grief is just love squaring up to its oldest mortal enemy. After all these mortal human years, love is up to the challenge..
As bad as that feeling is right now, it means V mattered and was loved.
Last Thursday I had to let my 17 year old orange boy named Henry go, so it warms my heart to see another out there. Please give him extra love from me next time you see him ❤️
Could this possibly be a function of how much experience you have? I’m 50 and I remember being in my twenties and knowing a lot of rote knowledge but then not being really great at some more abstract thought. It took a while to start intuiting my way through problems And connecting different ideas.
I really hate the “you’ll know better when you’re older” arguments people make to dismiss a younger person’s opinion or whatever, but I will say I have grown to appreciate how experienced people, regardless of age, can better adapt to certain situations because they’ve had to deal with them more often than I have.
All that to say my gut reaction is that this is a “kids these days” article dressed up with some flowery scientific buzzwords that all of us new old people can smugly latch on to and tut-tut about.
Probably an obvious one, but Life is Strange was a pretty emotionally fraught game to play through. Everyone’s probably aware, but it is filled with choices that determine lots of different small outcomes as well as the main ending. So after I finished it, I spent the evening watching streamers react to the ending and sniffling along with them.
Personal story about that, a good friend passed away unexpectedly right before the pandemic, and his wife asked for my help finding some things on his computer. He was a great guy, big burly dude not known for being overly-sentimental but a wonderful imagination/DM. As I was going through stuff she was reminiscing about him. So we opened his Steam library and he had 2 games installed. Fortnite and every chapter of LiS. She had no idea what that game was, but imagining him secretly huddled over his laptop, guiding Max & Chloe along just broke me.
Another game that drew me in instantly was Hellblade: Sennua’s Sacrifice. Seeing the character’s backstory in the first couple of scenes and knowing that this was a story game dealing with mental health and loss was major, and I was immediately motivated to help her get through the healing process.
I had to say goodbye to my Orange Boy just a few weeks ago and I still feel it looking around the house. I was able to move into this place 17 years ago, and he came to live with me in just a few weeks after. Jean Cocteau said:
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
And he’s absolutely right. The home hits different now that his little face isn’t peeking around corners, His siblings are working overtime to fill the gap but it’s hard. It’s crazy how deeply they worm into our hearts, to the point that a thread full of internet strangers all jump to your side when they’re gone. It’s obvious from your post how deeply you felt about Linux, and I’m sorry for your loss.