Chasing after the Wind, and Binkies

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind. (Ecclesiastes 6:9)

The Super Bowl ended up being pretty entertaining, even if it did lack a certain team from Minnesota. Again. Since I didn’t have a rooting interest in either team, I was able to just enjoy the game.

Like many people, I suspect, I also watch for the commercials. I have a hard time during the Super Bowl because I enjoy both the game and the ads. When do I go to the kitchen for more chips and salsa? Halftime, of course. I wouldn’t know a Rihanna song if she stood in my living room and started singing.

I thought the ads were better this year. I especially liked the “Thank Canada” ads. As someone who has enjoyed poutine, I found it nostalgic.

There was one ad that got me thinking, however. I’m not sure what the product was, but basically a dad had to drive from the family vacation in the mountains back into the city because they had forgotten the baby’s binky. He drives through snow, construction, a football game, though I don’t know why, even getting a police escort while people cheer him on. Then, when he returns to the mom holding the still crying baby, everyone cheers the hero dad as he puts the binky in the baby’s mouth.

Then the baby spits out the binky and starts crying again as a voiceover says, “The baby only likes the blue one.”

Seriously? The dad just drove all that way to get the binky and the kid just spits it out? I have a problem with that.

Before you get bent out of shape or tell me I don’t understand baby’s, slow down. I got the joke. Ha ha. Dad went through all that for nothing.

What struck me about the ad was how it seemed to reflect our world today where too often, like that baby, we fail to appreciate what we have and are always searching for something else, something better, something more.

The writer of Ecclesiastes was on to something when they said, “Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.” There’s something to be said for appreciating what we have rather than always longing for more, “chasing after the wind” as Ecclesiastes says. When we discover the secret of enough, we just may discover the secret of happiness and indeed the secret of life.

Many wisdom traditions lift the importance of gratitude as a key to finding joy in life. May we learn to be grateful for what we have and grateful for all that others do for us. May we also learn to be content with the blessings we have received so as not to go chasing after the wind, which is pretty much the way the Vikings are chasing after the Super Bowl.