I am Error... or am I?

So, the other day, I was playing around before bed, Googling stuff about one of my favorite things, "retro videogames," (though, at my age, "retro" should go back FAR before that well-known little plumber was trying to rescue a princess from an ape. I actually had a Telstar with just Pong on it, folks!) As I was on that little nostalgic Google tour, I recalled The Adventures of Link. Being a Zelda fangirl long before the term "fangirl" was even in common usage, and even having written this really tacky and unauthorized Zelda walk-through booklet called On Your Way to Ganon (which almost got me in really hot water with Nintendo, by the way), I was excited beyond belief about the sequel coming out. Yes, I was 19, in my first year of college, and I should have had more significant things on my mind, like my accounting and psych classes, but I can still remember the day when I used some of my scholarship money to rush out to Kay-Bee Toys (back when our mall was actually worth visiting in 1989-ish) to buy the game. I didn't even eat dinner that night, because I was too busy "grinding" or "farming," as the kiddos call it nowadays, killing bazillions of Octoroks in the swamps to up my magic and experience. Yeah, I'm a nerd for still remembering that at 44, but I don't care.

As I was recalling this game, I remembered a particular character, a fat guy in a purple tunic. At first, he simply says, "I am Error." This is now seen as something quite humorous. In fact, if you Google "Adventures of Link," you'll find that it is a most popular meme. Some guy even wrote an entire book about videogames, using I Am Error as the title. (Sounds like a book I might have to check out on Amazon, by the way.) As I pondered this old scene, though, something struck me.

I have never been very self-confident. I am my own worst enemy most of the time, and I struggle to find any value in myself. As a Christian person, I know this is not the best mindset to have. After all, God sent His Son down here to this wretched place for me, right? God made me in the first place, right? He could have given my parents anyone else, given them someone other than a fat, curly-headed baby back in 1970, a baby that would grow up to make a ton of really stupid mistakes and be rather annoying in more ways than she can count, but in His infinite wisdom, He made me. Clearly, God is not an idiot. I am here, so He must have seen some worth in me.

Anyhoo...back in Mido, my Link spoke to a guy named Bagu (which translates to "Bug," incidentally. What was with these guys' parents? Surely they had baby name books in Hyrule.). Bagu told me to speak to this Error for help. A subsequent conversation with Error revealed the location of a secret tunnel, something to do with King's Tomb. The details are a little fuzzy all these decades later, but that only gives me an excuse to play the game again, right? There's nothing on Hulu or Netflix anyway.

I am sure Nintendo had no idea back in the eighties that in 2015, some chick in her forties would take this as any sort of deep spiritual or philosophical lesson, but I can't help it. I tend to over-analyze things. If you're going to read this blog, you may as well get used to that! I love analogies and analysis. I can't help it if it all seems a bit....well, I hate to say this, but these both have "anal-" as a prefix, right?

The fact is, Error was not an error at all--and neither are any of us. Error and Bagu (aka Bug) both had a purpose, no matter how small. They had a reason for being exactly where they were, and their  knowledge helped Link on his quest. Error was an integral part of a much larger plan, even if he did not see that in himself.

The other day, one of my editing clients actually referred to me as a "genius." I certainly do not feel like one (especially this last year, when major life adjustments, traumatic and worrisome events, fire-extinguishing, and financial woes have really distracted me from my work and my sanity and my usually OCD organizational and prioritizing skills that helped me in my 25 years in Cubicle Land). I catch errors all day long, everything ranging from semicolons to syntax to that ever-pesky dangling participle. I'm supposed to, because people pay me to do it. However, the next time I feel like I am an error, I will remember this fat guy in the purple tunic and gladly play my role, because if God Himself felt compelled to make me and has left me around this long, I'm obviously not just a glitch!