From The Storyteller
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Redemption
A thought that arose during the week before Super Bowl XIL, “The NFL’s primary goal is not naming the winner of the last game of the season” (Super Bowl). If the Chiefs had won one more time (three-peat) would NFL football have ended forever? May it never be! I can hardly imagine what life would be like without our annual Super Bowl Budweiser commercial. Which naturally brings us to Elaine and me drinking our early morning tea and looking out on our quiet neighborhood at 5:30 - as we talk about food additives. We agree their purpose is to make their particular product so compelling that people can’t resist it. Which brings me back to XIL. Google reports that the average 2024 NFL football game had roughly 18 million viewers. It also reported that XIL had 182 million watch the Super Bowl. Imagine my surprise when I realized the primary task of the NFL is not about football, but actually to increase viewers. Their goal, to sell expensive advertising, and without a doubt they’ve done a great job with their time and money. 170M new viewers is big. Which obviously brings me to the question, “Do I feel bad because they spent so much effort and money to get me to watch the game, and our household failed to respond?” It is a hard truth that we are without cable, but we as a family must live with our failure. By not responding to all that well-intended effort we have truly placed a big black mark on our address and us personally. There is, however, one remaining hope that Elaine and I can rely on. It’s the Chicago Cubs’ opening day “first pitch” cheer – “There is always next year!” Moral: While living with our XIL failure, our comfort is the possibility of redemption with XL. |