Sad Cities

There is a game called Simpsons Tapped Out. You play it on tablets and smart phones. What you do is build your own Springfield, the town in The Simpson's TV show. You have neighbors in the game and you visit those neighbors to gain points, money, and prizes. It is preferable to have a lot of neighbors. You also get money and points when they visit you.

My son had found it and started playing and his girlfriend decided to have her own town and they could visit each other. She made a Facebook post asking people to start playing so she could have more neighbors. I thought, "Why not?", if I don't enjoy it I can quit. I ended up loving it.

Last week I realized that it had been quite a while since she had visited my town and there was nothing to do to gain points when I visited her town. I asked my son if she was okay. Did she not have her phone? Did she get bored with the game? That's when he told me they had broken up.

She is a very sweet girl. I thought she was a little young for him but I kept that to myself. And now there is her Springfield, abandoned. She had done a really nice job, too. It was very well laid out and decorated.

There is now a Facebook page for the game. They have posts in which you give your game name in order for people to add you as their neighbor. In one of these posts there was a couple whose id's were StanSmith and Stan'sGirl. That is not the exact name. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. In any case, the idea is that they are a couple. I added them as my neighbors.

Well, it has been over a week and Stan'sGirl has not played the game. It has me wondering. Did they break up, too?

Young girls' hearts are so tender. I say girls, I'm referring to people in their early twenties. I know that my son's girlfriend had quite a bit of wedding ideas on Pinterest. It may seem funny but the Springfields make me sad and contemplative.

You are young and in love. You build your city. You design the layout. You decorate it. You make your plans for the future of your city. Then something happens and you must abandon that which you had lovingly grown. And in most cases it is the woman that is no longer in the game. The guys just go on playing. I can imagine my son's ex-girlfriend and Stan'sGirl not wanting to play the game because it hurts too much to do so and my heart goes out to them. It does hurt to do something solo when it was once shared with the one you love.

Or maybe they just got bored with it. I will never know.