TGIM Super Bowl

In the Jewish calendar, Sabbath is Saturday so Sunday is the first day of the week. The Gregorian calendar made Sunday the Sabbath, so Monday is the first day of the week. To many in the CNMI, this Super Bowl Monday culminates a football season, so Monday was the Sabbath of the pigskin faithful in the Commonwealth. TGIM—thank God it’s Monday—is not an inappropriate exclamation in Chamolinia.

It is Sunday in Honolulu and with the sparse traffic on H-1 as many comfortably moved to their TVs, we had an excuse to attend 91-year-old Mom’s Church. It was an eerie highway returning home as the lanes stayed relatively empty.

Speaking of the Super Bowl game, the language of competition permeates our lives in the West. Even student learning at SVES was a competition on who will receive the Commissioner’s Award. Report card day determined mirth and gaiety on the day as parents come to see if their child, cowering in fear and trepidation, has the makings of a possible university candidate.

OK, a word from the line of scrimmage at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. New England Patriots vs. New York Giants was a contest of determination between two teams that met in 2008 when the Giants upended what would have been an undefeated season for the Patriots. The superstar repeat of Giant Eli Manning and Patriot Tom Brady at QB competing for passing excellence equaled two former Bill Parcel assistants, Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick, signaling from the sidelines.

A country Western duo opened with America the Beautiful and Kelly Clarkson led the national anthem while Madonna belted her indomitable stage presence, “life is a mystery” for World Peace, at halftime. Clint Eastwood heralded firmly “Half-time in America” with Detroit heading back out to the world.

There was no shortage of wonder on this heralded clash of the titans. The Patriots closed the first half with a 10-9 lead over the Giants. Manning began the kickoff with 9 pass completions, but Brady responded with 14 pass completions and a 94-yard romp to a touchdown before the end of the first half. Brady again roared down the field at the start of the second half for another touchdown. Giants came back with two kicks to bring the game 15-17 Patriot’s into the 4th quarter.

Our interest, however, goes beyond the gridiron; we are fascinated by the notion of the “first day of a week,” and as TGIF used to mean gratitude for the end of a work week and the beginning of fun, we reverse the process and make TGIM the first fun-filled day of expenditure, welcomed and celebrated with innovation and creativity.

The cycle of a week since the industrial revolution has had five days focused on life support ventures while the weekends are crammed with social decision-making and meaning-giving endeavors. Not a bad design. Some monastics make two weeks out of seven days, and two days out of 24 hours, if only to dramatize that life cycles can be programmed and that life patterns are intentional rather than accidental.

Weekly time cycles are deeply rooted in cosmology and biology. The lunar calendar divides into four moons—new, full and the quarters, corresponding to the female menstrual cycle that mirrors the continuation of a race; a weekly cycle also measures the life of a cell that is birthed and recycled every seven days.

We watched CNMI young professionals wade through the doomed downside of a weekend binge that winds up with meth-withdrawal syndromes. It is time for a long awaited reversal of fortune. TGIM.

Much of our lives are surrendered to deterministic forces from the environment or of genetics. “Cause” is attributed to an external force that is either thanked or cursed. “Chance” is our romantic escape into the happy confluence of the right time at the right place, when/where we get lucky. The function of “choice” is often left to the few who are capable of surfing the Wainea waves of their soul and destiny.

The Super Bowl is an exercise in intentionality. Players visualize what the downs will be, design a method of seamless execution, and get members of a team to do their assigned functions. There are no squabbles over roles. There is singularity of purpose—the team and the game, the ship and the storm.

The game came down the wire. Manning marched to two field goals before unleashing his magic. Coaching strategies were brilliant, and the game was determined in a Brady “Hail Mary” play in the last five seconds of the game.

That we have turned it into gladiatorial display of combatants and a nation of couch potatoes does not negate the fact that the Super Bowl of our lives occur daily and it is a matter of choice whether we are in the game with pleasurable discipline and measured intentionality, or whether we rely on the paid actors to entertain us in our chosen passive roles as we cheer or whine in the sidelines.

In economics we are subservient employees, in politics we are recipients of the dole, novena tables, and others’ bidding, and in culture we insist on the right to chew betel nut. Super Bowl declares in big and bold letters that there is more to life than that.

So TGIM, it is. Let’s hope your Super Bowl lasts the whole year!