The Brutally Depressing Superbowl: But this land is my land

Admittedly, I watch the Superbowl for its ads. Actually, I used to do that. I have started to actually like watching the game of football; in particular when the New England Patriots are losing or the New York Giants are winning. Neither seems to happen as often as I would like.  Last night’s game was downright depressing for any Seattle Seahawks fan. To come that close and lose in the last few seconds is brutal to the psyche. I can assure you that Russell Wilson did not sleep a wink last night running that last play repeatedly in his head and thinking “what if.”  Brutal.

Anyway, during the Superbowl Katy Perry showed off some weird outfits while wearing cool shiny silver shoes. I swear I have a pair of silver shoes that look like hers. There was a mighty depressing advertisement during the game. Nationwide featured an ad where a young vibrant kid sucks you to only let you know he couldn’t do anything grand in life because he died. Wow! What a Debbie Downer.

There was also a Jeep advertisement that was cool for the beautiful landscape imagery it used. This commercial stirred for many Americans a grand sense of patriotism for about 20 seconds. The song “This Land Is Our Land” played while beautiful US scenery played in the background. Gorgeous US scenery. Then lands from around the world were displayed while the song continued to play. On twitter, people started to go nuts. I too was momentarily startled to see foreign lands (such as the Great Wall of China) played while the song “This Land Is Our Land” continued its melodic pulse. I watched quizzically wondering what the advertisement would be all about at the end.  The song ended and the tagline was “The World Is a Gift. Play Responsibly.”

I did not immediately get the “play responsibly” part; perhaps because I do not drive and thus car commercials do not strike me at more inner core. I sure did get the idea of “the world is a gift”. Indeed, it stirred up my sense of nostalgia and wanderlust taking me back to my varying moments of being on the road feeling at one with the land.  The world is too beautiful to just lay claim to a tiny sliver of it.

 Indeed, see the world’s many lands and rising sun

The world is a gift!