The Veneer of Importance

Intellectual junk food takes many forms, but probably the most insidious means of transmission is through the veneer of importance. One afternoon not long ago I heard a radio advertisement for the evening’s local news broadcast: (Big announcer voice) “Tonight at 11 – What dangerous food ingredient is probably in your pantry right now, and you don’t even know it. We’ll tell you all about tonight at 11, on Newschannel 7. The station that cares.” Wait a minute! If it’s really that important, why don’t you tell me now? I’ve got to feed my family long before your 11 o’clock broadcast. Why don’t you at least direct me to your website where I can get this “vital” information when I need it? Of course, it’s not really that important, and I could miss the entire broadcast and be none the worse for it. The veneer of importance – the seriousness of the voices I hear and the intensity of the audio & video suck us in, waste our time and cause us to put our thoughts into things that don’t build us or anyone else up – that don’t improve anyone’s life at all.

This may surprise you, but I’m finding that the most relevant aspects of television news these days are the weather (so I know how to dress) and sports. Sports??? Wait a minute! Redneck beer-swilling couch potatoes like to watch sports. Yes, but it doesn’t take too much effort to see the lessons in hard work, unity of effort and personal excellence that are part of professional sports today. The irony of it is that the best sports outlets, such as ESPN, don’t put a veneer of importance on what they broadcast. It’s entertainment, they know it’s entertainment and they present it that way. ESPN has terrific writers and they throw in as much humor as they can get away with. It’s not supposed to be critically important. The verb “play” is used. There is a great lesson in that small fact. I’m sure many of us can recall spending hours upon hours playing pick up football or basketball, completely exhausting ourselves and only coming in the house when it got so dark that we were avoiding passes because we didn’t want to catch one in the teeth. We played hard. We were running wind-sprints – voluntarily!!!! We loved it!!! The bumps & bruises didn’t mean anything because we were having a great time – and we worked our tails off. It was good for us physically and mentally.

I’m finding that I appreciate and enjoy any performance that clearly requires excellence on the part of the performer(s). From classical music to rugby to synchronized swimming. If it requires significant dedication to excellence on the part of those I’m watching, I can learn something good for me. Portion control is important here. I could spend all day “appreciating” classical music or college basketball’s “March Madness,” but that won’t help me get my necessary work done.

Although I find National Public Radio’s fairly liberal editorial bent irritating, I must applaud them for keeping probably the highest standards in news reporting available. They generally report on things that do have some impact on my world, and it appears that they have a wonderful policy that absolutely forbids mentioning Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears. With the high quality of reporting, it is much easier to be critical of the editorial slant but appreciate the relevance of the information provided.

Often the veneer of importance blinds us to what really is. The guy who takes his son miniature golfing but spends the entire time on his cell phone conducting business completely misses what is really important. We need to constantly ask ourselves, “Is this really as important as I’m being led to believe, or is it really a waste of my time and attention that would be better placed elsewhere?”

“Fly high & roar loudly!”

dirk