Questions about the Superbowl
February 9, 2011
As usual, the Superbowl generates more questions for me than answers. How did a game of one hour develop over time into a game of between three and four hours? Who ever decided that a bunch of predominantly overweight men who stand around doing little other than posing in spandex should come to be regarded as `elite athletes' [sic]? (And, in my opinion, nobody over 200 pounds should even be allowed in a spandex shop, let alone be encouraged to wear the merchandise. Simple aesthetic common sense, one would have thought. Surely it is time the government stepped in to stop the madness?!?). And why do people resent paying the President a few hundred grand to run the world and yet regularly shell out vast sums of cash so that a bunch of adolescents playing a glorified game of playground catch can trouser more money in a month than most of us can shake a stick at in a lifetime?
On a more -- or perhaps less -- serious note, there are two other things worthy of comment. Why the obsession with the commercials? Yes, some of them are funny; but is it not sad that it appears that the cleverest minds, and so much money, are focused on such things? And that the population spend so much time talking about them? Do these people have no lives? No homes and families to go to? We worry (or at least some of us still do) about explicit violence and pornography on television -- but what about the pornography of acquisition, the million brain-changing signals from the flat screen in the corner that tell us that we are what we buy, and that happiness is just one or two purchases away?
Finally, how many Christians would never turn out for a Sunday evening worship service because they had their fix on Sunday mornings, but would rearrange all manner of things to make sure they could see the Superbowl? Watching overpaid spandex-clad blimps playing catch, then running for, oh my, at least 5 seconds and six yards before taking a five minute breather, and as a result trousering too much dosh -- or meeting with the living God who gave his Son for us, hearing his word proclaimed, and humbly bowing before him in adoration -- not much of a choice is it, really? The spandex and hilarious commercials win every time.
On a more -- or perhaps less -- serious note, there are two other things worthy of comment. Why the obsession with the commercials? Yes, some of them are funny; but is it not sad that it appears that the cleverest minds, and so much money, are focused on such things? And that the population spend so much time talking about them? Do these people have no lives? No homes and families to go to? We worry (or at least some of us still do) about explicit violence and pornography on television -- but what about the pornography of acquisition, the million brain-changing signals from the flat screen in the corner that tell us that we are what we buy, and that happiness is just one or two purchases away?
Finally, how many Christians would never turn out for a Sunday evening worship service because they had their fix on Sunday mornings, but would rearrange all manner of things to make sure they could see the Superbowl? Watching overpaid spandex-clad blimps playing catch, then running for, oh my, at least 5 seconds and six yards before taking a five minute breather, and as a result trousering too much dosh -- or meeting with the living God who gave his Son for us, hearing his word proclaimed, and humbly bowing before him in adoration -- not much of a choice is it, really? The spandex and hilarious commercials win every time.
