pass the parcel

Pass the Parcel is a traditionally English (that is, from the U.K.) children’s game that is similar to Musical Chairs in the States. The way Pass the Parcel works is that there is a multi-layered gift that is passed around a circle of players. A person who is controlling the music pauses the music, and whoever has the parcel opens it. This occurs repeatedly until every layer surrounding the middle object is opened. Often, the best gift is in the center, which goes to the last person, probably the birthday child.

In the film The History Boys, Hector constantly alludes to literature, culture, and the arts, as he is a General Studies teacher at the grammar school. When the boys go for a field trip at a local monastery, he joyously proclaims, “Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That’s the game I want you to learn. Pass it on.”

When going through my friends’ tumblrs, I realized the allegorical relationship between his quotation and the usage of blogs, especially the “permalink” functions available on many of them.

It’s interesting to think of the knowledge in each blog post, especially in tumblr, where uploads tend to be references rather than original work. This knowledge is so easily transferred by simple clicking, yet the notion of disseminating information in this way is stunning. We literally take this piece of information and pass it on. We admire it for a few moments, or even a few days. Perhaps we will look back on it later, but we hold it for as long as we need, and then we pass it by simply relinking it. It’s a brilliant concept that by “saving” it on our own domain, we have given it to another. Once it becomes a part of us, it can then become a part of another. Another blogger. A friend. A family member. It is ours to take only because it will be given.

And perhaps, this system of finding and sharing retrains us to think, consciously or subconsciously, that we find not for ourselves only, but for others. In this way, our “selves” are part of others–we are them, because we work and find for them, by them, with them.

Maybe intense blogging and interest gathering will be the true future of social networking. Tumblring has far more depth and clarity than posting information to a Facebook wall. I see much more pertinent conversations as a result of the former rather than the latter.

You might think about it next time you blog, that the community is information, and that you are simply playing a game where you give and receive equally.