As most people know, as of the date of publishing, tomorrow is the Super Bowl, February 11, 2024.

If you’ve been following the Ewellogy for any time at all, you’ll know that I quote from Seth Godin frequently. He’s a marketer, and he’s one of my inspirations for a daily blog. A very wise person. But even the best of us slip up. Here’s how Seth’s blog started last Sunday, February 4:

In the US, today is a major holiday. The Superb Owl, with nachos, commercials and beer. People who don’t even watch football watch this game, and it’s one of the largest audiences each year on TV.

“The Superb Owl” – cute. The blog was about the general folly of paying huge amounts of money to reach a vast audience, most of whom don’t care about what you’re selling unless it’s chips or beer.

I wrote to Seth: “Great blog, Seth. One week early.”

He wrote back: “Thanks, Doc. Fixed.”

And in the fix, he changed “today” in the first line to “[next Sunday]” and then wrote a marvelous PS:

PS in a shocking display of my cultural awareness that also reveals how little I care about football, the big game is next week. – Seth Godin, February 4, 2024

One can laugh at Seth…or one can realize that none of us knows everything. We were watching Blue Bloods, Season 6, Episode 7, “The Bullitt Mustang.” Detective Danny Reagan is explaining to his partner who hasn’t seen the 1968 movie Bullitt, that it contains “the greatest car chase scene ever filmed.” All the Reagan men drool over the Mustang, which appears at the end of the story.

Well, guess what? I’m only vaguely aware of the movie Bullitt. I know who Steve McQueen is. I’d never heard of the car chase scene, but thanks to modern technology, June and I watched it on YouTube. The only thing we found interesting about the chase was that there was a green VW bug that looked like a VW bug that we had (ours was a 1971 model). 

None of us knows everything. None of us is interested in everything. And when it comes to popular culture, there’s a lot I don’t want or need to know.

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12.2, MSG)