Let Me Entertain You!

It’s funny…the things you remember.

We had a sergeant who wasn’t very good in his military duties but excelled on the basketball court.  Because he was so highly regarded as an athlete, the commander overlooked many of his job shortcomings.

This prompted another lieutenant to comment to me, “So the guy is good at throwing a ball through a hoop!  Let me give him a calculus problem and see how he does!”

I’ve thought of that statement through the years as I’ve pondered how richly we, as a society, value certain talents, traits and/or characteristics in others.

Robert De Niro directed and starred in a movie called “A Bronx Tale.”  De Niro played a bus driver, who had a son who was embraced by local mobsters to become one of them.  In one scene, De Niro tells his son that the real heroes in the world are the working men and women, not the slick gangsters who accumulate money through a life of crime. 

Yet, the mafia boys had money and power, and in this particular neighborhood, were even revered. Some kids aspired to be just like them.

We idolize our star athletes.  We pay for them to attend our universities.  A few even skip college and go straight into the professional ranks, where we grossly overpay them for playing games a few months out of every year.

Team owners can afford to overpay them because the general public overpays to watch them play.  Fans buy team paraphernalia, paint team colors on their faces and “live and die” based on how their team performs.

It’s ridiculous when you think about it.

But let’s not limit the discussion to just athletes.  Entertainers, as a whole, fall into this category.  Actors and musicians come to mind first. But I’d also throw in a smaller collection of ministers and evangelists. 

I remember working with a non-profit organization in the early 1980’s whose mission was to help churches grow.  Based on research, the number-one determining factor for church growth was the senior pastor.  If the church had a dynamic, charismatic, and dare I say, entertaining senior pastor in the pulpit every Sunday, church attendance would blossom.

Which all leads us to the question: What’s the dealio with our deep desire to be entertained?  Is life really all that boring?

I’d write more on this subject, but I have to leave.  I’m driving out to the desert today to watch some of my favorite golfers compete in the Bob Hope Classic.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get some autographs.  Certainly I’ll but some hats and shirts.  And I’ll come home fulfilled and satisfied.

But don’t ask me to do a calculus problem.