THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022 - BOWL GAMES

 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022 - BOWL GAMES

I like to mark my week with four days on the same topic.  Monday and Tuesday this week were the College Football Bowl Games.  Yesterday my topic was “It all goes in the box” - about memories of College Bowl Games.  Today, a little more on entertainment (which, at least to me, sports fit into).

I like football - both college and professional. (Opinion: I'm not a big soccer fan - they run up and down the field for a long time and maybe the score at the end is 1 to 0.). In American football, you can focus when a team gets into the "Red Zone". You enjoy the amazing catches, the zigzagging runs, and the defense. (I even enjoy the commercials - the Nissan Heisman House, State Farm Mayhem, and Dr. Pepper Fanville).

We have entertainment options.  And, entertainment options have a monetary value.  We can choose to have season tickets for the University of Nebraska football games.  And it is a real positive experience to sit in a stadium with 90,000 other folks - almost all wearing red with almost all saying “Nebraska” on them.  We can be a community for that afternoon, for that day as we tailgate in the parking lot, for that season.

We can sit next to a family from Omaha, Grand Island, or Wahoo Nebraska, and have an instant friendship.  Maybe we can get their phone numbers or email addresses and we can text or email back and forth.  Like the old introduction to the ‘Wide World of Sports” - we can have ‘the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

We can go to a political rally and be unified in support of “OUR” candidate.  We can even view our church service as ‘entertainment’ - it makes us feel good to worship together, to sing hymns together, to have a common interface.  

We have other entertainment options.  I “have” to have the internet so I can have email, this editing platform, texting, Facebook and Twitter, games, and puzzles.  (Yes, I don’t “have” to have the internet.  I can go to my apartment’s laundry room and get on the internet. But, it is so convenient to have accesston my apartment.  

I can go to the movies (entertainment), I can listen to music (entertainment), and I can go to concerts (entertainment).  A while back I suggested that some of the political sites are really “entertainment”.  The commentators have to have sponsors to exist, and sponsors want a “return on investment”.  So, if the commentators are lively and keep the audience’s interest, the sponsors pump more money into their ads.  

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Entertainment can be expensive - those bowl game seats, travel to the game, and staying at a hoteldos add up.  At home, cable television can be expensive (and if you add premium channels it adds up.  Going to the movies can be expensive.  Going out to eat involves spending money.  Xbox and other gaming platforms can be expensive.  Many things are vying for your entertainment dollar.  

I was in my apartment exercise room and I had the television in front of the treadmill on.  I prefer watching numbing sports but it was morning so I had an old movie.  When the movie took a break, there were five minutes of commercials - so “free” but demanding my attention and coaxing me into buying things.

Growing up we played board games, card games, and played outside.  We found entertainment on our own.  

An old adage asks “What’s the difference between men and boys?  It is in the cost of their toys.”  Some people are trying to “keep up with the Jones” in terms of entertainment.  My friend KD has seen every movie (okay, that can’t be true, but it does seem to be true).  In terms of entertainment, she knows movies and music.  (If I asked her about Bowl Games I think she might be stumped).  

We get to choose our entertainment.  Maybe more men than women choose football and sports.  I think I pick classical music (as I’m listening to Mahler’s Tenth Symphony as I write).  At times I think I could be on Jeopardy for trivia knowledge and at other times, I know I’d lose out.  

Back to the topic for the week - Bowl Games have merit in the United States as a holiday tradition, as an American sports tradition.  But, there are other entertainment options.  Choose your entertainment well - and love it!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © DECEMBER 15, 2022