Paintball

There are some things that I will never understand. Like the attraction men (even smallish ones) have to that which is violent and aggressive and competitive. The constant need to prove who is the toughest. It must be something in the DNA.

Paintball is a game (some call it a sport) where the goal is to shoot your opponent with a little ball of paint that is blasted out of a small, light (and expensive, I might add) air-pressurized gun. The battle takes place in any number of locations, usually at the end of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. A course is set up in a field or a yard or an abandoned parking lot. There are junk cars, makeshift "buildings" and blow-up barriers that serve as a maze that the players navigate as they "kill" one another. If you get shot, you are out of the game. The team that has the last man or men standing wins. There are prizes, but mostly the winners get bragging rights in exchange for about $100, which covers the entry fee and a case of paintballs.

Yesterday David and Al had some male bonding time as they travelled to Cedar Rapids for the night, and then to Shellsburg, Iowa (which is a "blink-and-you-miss-it" town just north of CR) for a tournament. David's team got second place out of 12. Not bad for 5 city boys.

I just wish he would put as much energy into his school work.