I don’t envy
kids today. We live in a world where it is more important to look good than to
feel good. Our infomercials show us that a toned fit body is more important
than the knowledge received picking up a book. I am as guilty as the next
person, the commercial I can’t get out of my head is the fitness routine based
on MMA fighting which seems to guarantee abs that will make me look like a chiseled
Octagon fighter. Abs I could crack eggs on in the morning, all the while I’ve
completely forgotten the link to the cool infomercial online a few weeks back which
could teach me any language in two months. Which one would bring me more value?
Making breakfast on my stomach or learning skills that would allow me to eat
breakfast anywhere in the world?
Try being a
student today and playing sports. We find out every day another hero we
idolized cheated to success. How would you like to be the young cyclist with
the Lance Armstrong poster on your wall? I find myself watching baseball and
not marveling at their skill but wondering what their testosterone count is.
Are they 3-1? What are they doing to stay undetected? I am not going to lie, I
was wondering how I could obtain testosterone myself to go ahead and speed up
those ab exercises in the first place. If you look good it must be healthy
right? If you aren’t cheating you are not utilizing all the tools. And hell, in
the case of football you are only guaranteed so many years of playing without
damaging your brain on concussions why not maximize your profits and make sure
you sign a top dollar contract.
I just
watched a baseball team yesterday trade for three players with contracts paying
270 million over the next 6-7 years. This California team is worth more than
half of its cities, which are filing bankruptcy. City employees, firefighters,
police forces, are losing jobs and benefits because of the financial hardships
due to short-term thinking and failure of long-term planning and we just shell
out an extra $100 (at least) every time we go to the park to distract ourselves
from how bad the rest of our lives are. I wrote a long time ago in internet
years (last year to be exact) that we live like the Romans before the collapse
of the Roman Empire. We pay to watch these gladiators in the Coliseum and
obsess over statistics while our own houses crumble around us. We are grateful
if one millionaire who arrives at the park from him mansion in a limo graces
the field in our presence and does something he is paid millions to do in the
first place. We cheer them on like conquering hero’s and buy their jerseys
until they find another park that pays them more. Meanwhile we are still paying
their salaries in higher ticket prices and concession stand prices, long after
they have driven away to “grace” another field.
I love
sports as much as the next guy but we are crazy. We have literally saturated
our daily lives with numbers and statistics that mean nothing, give us nothing,
and achieve for us nothing, but the ability to distract ourselves. And we seem
to be ok when we find out that some of our heroes cheated. We rationalize that everyone
does it anyways. Is it not fitting when
our own companies cut down on employees and benefits, job promotions, yet find
the hidden fortune to place their names on stadiums and sponsor athletes? These
nearly billion dollar Coliseums that the masses flock to that are sponsored by
the same companies that also make it difficult to afford the games in the first
place? We are being squeezed. Each and every day us the consumer are being
squeezed by our purchases and lifestyles. I say this as I can’t even watch Fox
on Direct TV because of a dispute with a broadcasting company in Yakima that
holds our Fox television rights. Both sides claim they are working for us. Both
sides will agree to just charge us more. Don’t worry, it’s coming. Do you hear
that sound behind the trumpets of the Coliseum? It’s the sound of eggs getting
thrown at our washboard abs. Better react fast, that’s dinner.
