Oblivious to Oblivion

Recently, the happy trio of Dear Husband, Dear Son and yours truly went out for dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was still an outing.

The place we went to is liberal with the use of sawdust- on the floor that is. And when one is waiting for one’s meal there are lots of shapes and designs that can be imagined in the hay colored flakes.

On this particular trip we managed to get a waitress with too many tables and not enough time. So, we waited. And we waited. And we waited.

My husband and son began chatting about the merits of a horse and mount for some game whose name I think was Oblivion. I tuned out after the second reference to morphing and found myself looking at a unicorn, grizzly bear and one giant llama all squirreled away within the carpet under my feet and around the table.

I wonder how much sawdust it takes to actually cover the floor. This I thought to myself.

For those of you who may not be initiated into the ways of the game let me give you a brief overview, courtesy of my trusty friend Wikipedia.

Oblivion is a single-player game that takes place in Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil. You are given the task of finding the hidden heir to a throne that sits empty, the previous emperor having been killed by an unknown assassin. With no true Emperor, the gates to Oblivion (the equivalent of hell in the world of Tamriel) open, and demons begin to invade Cyrodiil and attack its people and towns. It's up to you to find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

Sounds a bit like what is happening all over the world in my opinion. Which is what I was thinking when I noticed a bit of sawdust in the shape of the peace sign, the circle with a line dividing the circle in equal halves with two smaller lines one coming off each side of the line and making an upside down “V” shape of sorts.

As we waited ever so patiently for our food to arrive and my son and husband became even more animated over various elements of the game I thought to myself, “Why name a game oblivion?”

According to the online Merriam dictionary: Oblivion is the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown.

Hm…kind of like what we are to our waitress - her hungry, patient, paying guests. Now that I think about it, kind of like me…sitting quietly unobtrusively making pictures in the sawdust while talk of the Elders and weapons of destruction are gleefully discussed by my dinner partners.

Here comes our food…Oblivious to the state of Oblivion in which she our young waitress has left us, we forget talk of war and give thanks for our food being hot.