So, there was a big football game Sunday, right. I knew it was time for the Super Bowl only because there were about a million commercials about it being time for the Super Bowl.

On Saturday, I realized it was the next day and I had no idea what teams were playing. You can tell football, well sports in general, is not something that gets much attention from me.

However, in keeping with the spirit of knowing at least to some degree what’s going on in the world, I asked my husband about the game.

“I think the Atlanta team is playing isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Is the other team the Seahawks?” I said.

Now let me explain why I said Seahawks, or as I call it “the yoga team.“ It got that name from me because I read a story about how the coach integrated yoga and meditation into team practices. I thought that was cool, so I became a fan, sorta.

“No, it’s not the Seahawks,” my husband said. “It’s the Patriots, the New England Patriots.”

Well, that answered that question. Since I didn’t know anything about either team. My husband told me the names of some of the players, which I promptly forgot.

Oh, except for one name that I recognized, Brady, and only because I’d heard about his deflated balls. I think that was big news last year.

You can guess that I didn’t tune into the game. I knew I could see the multi-million dollar commercials online without the aggravation of watching the actual Super Bowl.

Instead, I opted for channel surfing until I found something interesting. I did watch a few minutes of both the kitten and puppy bowls — SOOO CUTE!

The Hallmark movie was a rerun I’d seen. Let me explain about me and Hallmark movies, or as I call them, the television version of Harlequin Romances. When I want to zone out, I indulge in watching a little sugary, sappy storyline that does not require much thinking. Hallmark does that for me.

Anyway, I moved on. Did you know if you have satellite television, at any time, day or night, you can watch Dateline, Full House, Law and Order, The Big Bang Theory or Everybody Loves Raymond?

There are also advertisements for kitchen gadgets, wrinkle remover and fat busters. Oh and jewelry — lot of shows about buying rings and stuff.

I finally settled on a program called “Brain Games,” and boy did I learn things. There were games demonstrating how we make decisions, how our brains trick us into choices we don’t even like… My favorite was the segment about competition and what happens in our brains when we compete. That returns me to the Super Bowl.

When we compete or get invested in someone else competing, our brains release a “feel good” chemical that gives us kind of a little high if we, or they, win. Even though the “win” has no impact on our lives, we want that high.

That got me thinking about how we could use competition for good. What if we competed in things that could impact life? I see it now.

“Hey, sucker,” I picked up more litter than you. Bam, I win.”

“You smiled at 10 people today. I smiled at 20. You lose.”

“Right, you posted a kitten video on Facebook. Well, I made a nice comment to a person who voted differently from me. Take that!

Think about it; the possibilities are endless. We’d have so much good chemical floating around in our brains from our competing, we‘d keep going and going –winning at stuff that really matters. It could change the world.

Oh yeah, who won the Super Bowl? Was it the deflated balls team? If so, those fans are sailing on that brain high. Those whose team didn’t win, get a litter competition going ASAP.

Anyway, maybe the yoga team will sun salute its way into next year’s game. OM! OM!

 

Nancy Blackmon is a former newspaper editor and a yoga teacher.