It's Not Them, It's You!

The sun creeps in and out of the clouds, shining down through the breaks in an otherwise dismal appearance. The ground's saturation, remnants of last night's rainfall. The promise and confirmation off what those dark, lingering clouds mean for the day. All mere backdrops of a billboard to a new sports store opening up in town. 

The billboard is nothing spectacular, actually interesting. A few Nebraska Cornhusker fans, oh, and did I mention today is the funeral of Senator and War Hero John McCain start of college football. More specifically, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and their famed return of the prodigal son, Scott Frost. A reminder of leadership as opposed to pompous presentation. A reminder that athletes, no matter how prominent, no matter how talented, follow true leadership. Ask Michael Jordan what he has to say about Phil Jackson. 

Leaders, lead. 

This isn't about that though, as much as I thew that in for relevancy. For context to the billboard. The young females, in their new Husker gear, not yet weary of age, not yet tired from a long day of fandom. They are fresh, clean, happy, ecstatic even. They have jobs or are students that allow them to glorify and partake in fanfare. They have parents that might be one of the women in the background, also having tickets, or at least the availability to attend the game. The crowd in the background is not pushy, trying to get a picture and there isn't a cell phone in sight, indicating the ability to be in the moment, not self-indulged with a selfie on social media. 

Wait, selfie? Me? 

Again, let me not lose you in what the picture isn't rather than what it is. It is being a college student/football fan at it's most pure. Something that is not frivolous, but righteous. Something we all assume we work towards, to lounge on a Saturday morning with good company and a good time out. 

This is what the opening of a new sports store chose to post as the sign telling newcomers into town, as well as long-time residence of the new and improved, mega store. 

Interesting. 

Not as much as the Mad Men who chose this angle, as much as what the picture means to me, and why I stare at this billboard every morning. Not because I am excited for the store as much as I am construction will cease and the parking lot to Trader Joes will be available once again, but because I see the people there and what they represent, I want that. 

Now, let me be clear here, as at times I fail with the concrete audience. I do not want, nor covet the females depicted in the picture (though it is interesting why they chose females and not any males). However, it is what advertisements like this depict. It is the picture and all the thoughts I take away, what I think the ad agency intended. They wanted purity and they stuck with the fandom as being the basis of customers. This billboard doesn't make shopping there anything of a priority nor are they convincing you of anything, other than this look, this picture, has people wearing new clothes, and they look happy. Well, it just so happens that we know a place, and it opens September 27th. 

Nothing pushing, hardly suggestive. Just simplicity. This could have been a social media post for all it appears, just with a better camera, maybe this is what the iPhone X looks like. Either way, I was sold. Again, not on the store, but what the image portrays and what I wanted for the day, that depiction. 

As beautiful as the picture is, parents, you know what is really going on.
This kid is probably screaming, hence the darkened expressions.
Mom is probably trying to get the kid ready for bed, see the sunset? 

However, That depiction, how each individual interprets it is not real. It is not real even for those who lived it, but a sales tactic of the most psychological type. It convinces us that this is happiness and that we want this. The most insidious aspect is that a good ad man can merely present the idea in such a subtle way that all question, what's that like? 

I have also heard men, women, either sex, talking about another person of the opposite sex in regards to what they might offer that their current partner doesn't. The difficult part is in that moment, people really convince themselves that the image of what they see with someone could really be a better, more happy version of themselves. Like the girls on the billboard and getting integrated into that crowd, being a part of that picture would make us what we think of that picture. I have seen relationships thrown away based on this facade and convincing ourselves that somehow life would be better and the one we have just can't be it, like we deserve the thing we imagine it to be. What's worse, we will kill ourselves in search of something that doesn't exist. Like a drug user doesn't have consequences, or the guy at the bar all night isn't miserable. Those, "good times" come at a price. A price we are all too familiar with, and this tag is on anything we choose to covet at the cost of our principals. 

Gillian Flynn wrote the fiction book Gone Girl. In the story, there a woman writing about her husband's extramarital affairs in which she refers to his understanding of the situation to be,"she [the other girl] just doesn't know his Bull S***." As though a facade is being played out here, and once the other girl learns the sad truth of her husband, she too will be cast off to the side. 

Brutal. Beautiful. Truthful. 

The life you think you want or what the media experts or what another person sells you on, isn't real. You are you and you take you wherever you go. The image of what you think you want is just that, a story just as fiction, as, well, fiction. 

Stay true to what is yours, pay attention to the truth, and love God. 

Castle-Broken:When appearances are everything, available Here. To see the other side of selfishness, you know, the one we are, "guilty" of, starts with self and nothing can be more selfish than the quest for the ideal body. Something I gave up principals for, gave up truth for. 

God Bless.