Where do I stand? Easy- Pro-Tebow.

Well, just a little over a week until the Super Bowl- and you know what that means- cool commercials! Seriously, that's like the best part of the game...seeing what the creative genius at all these big companies shelled out millions of dollars for. 30 seconds of air time....over two million dollars. No wonder our economic structure is all out of wack.

If you haven't heard, Focus on the Family ponied up the dough and is running an ad on abortion featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, talking about how her doctors told her to get an abortion. Obviously she didn't, and that has worked out well.

This is, needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyways, because it's a blog, and because it's 11 at night), slightly controversial. Here's my take on it.

In some ways, I don't mind it. I think it's great. Focus on the Family had the extra 2 mil, CBS needs money, voila. Commercial, capitalism, democracy- it's all great. Good message, good story. Bada bam.

Why I'm thinking that this is a bad thing...I see precedent being set here. This is going to get ugly. I feel like the wrong battlefield is being chosen for this. Because if you open this up to pro-life ads, then you are now opening the floodgates for any and every advocacy group that has some passion and a message. This isn't your grandpa's world, and the fact is that we the viewer, in the future, are going to be subjected to ads that poke and prod at issues that get us really fired up.

Now maybe not en masse, like the Bud Bowl ( I do miss Bud Bowl spots, by the way...it was like watching a football game within a football game)...but think about it. That means that you are going to be watching an ad for something that you are completely against. Maybe you're against homosexuality. Maybe you don't think that marijuana should ever be legal. Maybe you want the government to send the Mexicans back across the border. Maybe you are zealously a creationist. Whatever the case may be, you aren't going to be able to pick and choose. You can't say "well, I'm okay with CBS running the Tebow ad, but dammit they better not show the Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf one where he talks about his conversion to Islam".

And that's the problem I see with this. Hate is already festering deep within this country. Sports, the Super Bowl in particular, are a great chance for us to escape whatever it is that is going on in our lives. That's why so many Americans who are ambivalent about the Saints or the Colts are probably going to find themselves pulling for the Saints. It's amazing what that football team has meant to that community, to that city, and it's just a really great story. The Super Bowl is a chance for us to put aside our hate and anger. We don't need some 30 second commercial reminding us of the things that divide us. Do we?

Some people think this is a perfect opportunity to spread a message. I disagree. I'm tuning in to watch football...and the halftime show on the off chance that they are able to raise the dead again. Or are you trying to tell me that the Rolling Stones are still alive? I'm watching because I want to get away from this kind of stuff. We'll have all year to argue pro-this vs. pro-that.

You know what I see, in my head? I see a bunch of people watching the game at the sports bar. Some of them might be gay. One or two could be Christian...maybe there's a group of atheists. Probably someone who was (or maybe even is) a drug addict. A dead-beat dad, over there at the sports bar. The waitress has a second part time job so that she can afford to put food on the table for her toddler. That guy in the back beats his girlfriend. Up in the front is the head of the United Way. I think we all have some people on this list that we know and love- and maybe some that we just wish could be dragged out back and shot. But we're not so different, all of us.

HUMANITY. We all have our problems, our issues, our faults and flaws. We all have our beliefs. We all go here, or there, our lives forever flying in different directions, always held together by this one thread- our humanity. That doesn't mean that there aren't differences, or even that there shouldn't be. Right and wrong? They're there. But why do we focus on how different we are, instead of building on how similar we all are?

So is there a problem with the Tebow ad? That's really not what you need to ask yourself. You should be asking yourself if you have a problem with the ads that are sure to come later, the ones that deal with the issues that you don't want them to deal with. Because that's the only way that you can really answer the question.

The hardest thing I'll ever do

You know what I think? I think the toughest part of parenting isn't the late nights in early infancy, it's not the constant responsibility, it isn't even all the extra crap that you only need to buy because you have a child.

It's the knowledge that eventually, you are going to have to let go, and allow them to brave the shark infested waters of society- and knowing that you won't be able to hold their hand through it all. It's knowing that people are some of the most evil, wicked creatures on our planet, and that they will do and say things that are hurtful for no other reason than to be hurtful- and all we can do is shake our heads, shrug our shoulders, and reiterate how much we love our children.

I had a moment today where I had this epiphany, and it broke my heart. I cried. Literally. I'm not Stonehenge, but I don't cry often. When you catch a glimpse of your child, who is pure and innocent and thinks that the world is the same way....it hurts when you see that it is going to close in on them, and that they will never again see it in the same way.

I just want my kids to know that I love them. I love them with my whole heart, and I will always be there for them. I want them to know that things will not always be perfect, but they will not always be bad. And I want them to always treat other people (especially those younger, weaker, and "less cool" than they are) they way that they should be treated- like human beings.