Just Super

Madame:

Good suggestions.  John Maxwell teaches great leadership skills as well (although occasionally we come into slight disagreement).  Readers take note from that while one should not be self-delusional in one’s thinking, the how and character of our thoughts have tremendous impact—personally, with family and friends, and societally.

Today, of course, is Superbowl Sunday, a day that should be enjoyed.  Although I might often appear in these postings a curmudgeon who is in to guilt trips, that perception would be incorrect.  Recreation, play, diversion, group enjoyment—all are very important to both individuals and societies.  I myself have numerous hobbies, pastimes, interests, etc., some quite time engrossing, and would vastly prefer to spend a great deal of each day and week in them.

Superbowl Sunday should be a well earned, well deserved capstone to a week that saw good progress for the society.  One where we could all enjoy it wholeheartedly and guiltlessly because our lives and those around us are progressing sustainably for the better, because we’ve made the decisions and taken the actions to do that.

Except that isn’t the case.  And so Superbowl Sunday becomes instead a Roman-esque testament to our propensity to divert ourselves from the fact that we made no sincere efforts at progress and actually inflicted anti-progress on ourselves; to deny or willingly misapprehend the realities around us; to promote the banal or inane or destructive, and divert the resources to do so; to reward selfishness and visionlessness; and all when the civilizational indicators are heading strongly in the wrong direction. 

And people will justify it by saying they are “powerless to do anything”—except for all the energy, time, and thought they will devote to the premier modern gladiator game, let alone all the smaller ones before that.

Powerlessness in this society is largely a choice.  Readers are referred once again to Madame’s post about the potency of one’s thoughts.

I’ll still be getting together with my friends this afternoon.  We will laugh, we will eat, we will comment on the commercials, we will enjoy the game and each other’s company.  And in the back of our minds we will feel a little tug.

That’s our societal conscience, which knows, and can’t be fooled by justification of hollow spectacle.