About the Blogger and the Blog

Nathan Hicks, aka SpydersWebbing

This is an Orthodox Gaming Blog.

What does that mean?

I am an Orthodox Christian who likes gaming, particularly table-top RPGs. I think gamers are, by nature, people who need meaning. I'm out to explore the world and myself through that medium.

This does not mean trying to supplant the soul of the things I play and think about with Orthodox "dogma", but to baptize the things that I do, to find meaning and goodness where I can. To introduce "right glory" (ortho-doxy) where I can into the life I already live.

This doesn't mean I will be correct in my writings. Or that I won't change my mind. I am not an academic theologian. Nor am I a particularly holy person. I've done a pretty good amount of studying for a lay person, but I am learning all the time and love doing it. So don't take anything I'm saying as authoritatively correct, because that's not really what I'm going for. I don't think saving things means abandoning them for some silly "rational" system, but to find the things that I can that are good, where I'm at, and to affirm them, to praise them, and ultimately to love them.  And that means I'll make mistakes. I own them (or attempt to own them) with glee. I try not to take myself too seriously, thank God!

I will cover other stuff on the blog. My Patreon folks ask me to look at certain subjects and give my thoughts, and I attempt to give honest, vulnerable and (hopefully) coherent thoughts. My Facebook page I use to introduce what light I can, where I can put it. 

This blog will also cover mental health. As a sexual abuse survivor I will get into my own personal experiences with healing. I've found Orthodoxy to be a coherent system of healing and will write about that from time to time, as well as comment on the healing dimensions of apostolic Christianity. I do this to attempt to normalize these sorts of conversations (and thus interior dialogue) so that others may not only look into what I have found but to further their own journeys.

This is not a blog about nice things. It is about gaming yes, but it so much more. It is about joy. Grief. Evil. The Silence inside all noise. Beauty. Horror. Nihilism. Faith.

All the things.