having a doll as an idol makes offerings feel like a teddybear tea party in a way that I love

when I worked on The Sims, I thought about dolls a lot

dolls are so concrete and tactile. we touch them with our hands. we make them with our hands.

that The Sims worked as dolls while just being glowing dots on the screen was a great achievement.

I think part of why The Sims succeeded was that its graphics were out of date. The Sims's iconicity invited the player to project themselves into these little people.

Scott McCloud talks about this in Understanding Comics -- that we have a detailed, photographic vision of other people's faces, but only a cartoonish model of our own.

So when we see a realistic image, we feel "That's someone else." When we see a cartoon, we feel "That's me."

my doll is cartoonish.

This identity between my (quite new) devotional offering practice and childhood hospitality play mirrors the continuity between childhood make-believe and roleplaying games.

I encountered Dungeons and Dragons at about age 9, just as I was growing out of make-believe. My friends and I, our play was naturally becoming more walking around talking, describing what was happening instead of acting it out.

D&D was a revelation. Here was how older kids played. Camp Counselors. Young adults, practically. It seemed impossibly sophisticated and exciting.

This is why I bristle when people disparage others' magical practice as "LARP". My experience with LARP is pretty much limited to listening to people talk about it on Alex Roberts's (fantastic!) Backstory Podcast , but, like, I get it.

Setting aside how rude it is to disrespect another's magic...

People who look down on LARP have NO IDEA how deep it can be. LARP is theatre. It is a mystery practice.

So when I spoon matcha (from the bowl my brother made me during his pottery phase) into tiny serving cups from my Gong Fu set, sometimes I hold it in front of my doll's face, miming serving it to her, like a child.

"Good morning, friend. Have some tea."