God’s Mercy and the Atari I Never Got

Heavy is the heart weighed down with memories of the one that got away, especially around Christmas. My heart was once so encumbered, not by a past flame but by the Atari 2600 home videogame console.

It was early December 1981, and everyone I knew seemed to be playing “Space Invaders.” My elder sister, Brig, 12, younger brother, Jack, 8, and I, 10, had pestered our parents for it all year. We’d long heard nothing but such disheartening retorts as “Atari will rot your brain.”