Winning the Future

It is part of life's irony that while Egyptians were struggling for freedom, we Americans were emeshed in Super Bowl XLV.  As one who is on a constant search for life's meaning, and a new topic for my blog, I turned to the words of actor Michael Douglas, who opened the game with a televised tale of struggle and triumph.

His essay, called "The Journey" was about football, but it is just as much about finding purpose.  In his words, "This is so much bigger than just a football game.  These two teams have given us the chance for one night, not only to dream, but to believe.  This is a celebration of their journey -- of our journey."

Now many of us had stopped believing during the playoffs, but the dream of winning lives like a sentry in the American spirit.  President Obama tapped this essence a few weeks later in his State of the Union address.  He called upon the nation to work together to "win the future" by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building our global competition.  The impudent Republican response focused on putting Obama in the out-house.

For the most  part, the address resonated well, with over 30 million viewers, in a head-to-head competition with American Idol, whose ratings were up substantially from the prior week.  Of course, the Super Bowl's record 111 million viewers isn't a fair comparison.  Obama wasn't eating Doritos.