(Adam Studzinski/WJBC)
By Dan Irvin
Timing is everything.
When we saw the snow in our driveways and on the streets early Sunday morning, I’m sure most of us were thankful that mess didn’t occur 24 hours later on Monday morning. Well, maybe there were some school kids who were unhappy with the timing. I guess now that I think about it, when I was in grade school that would have been my feeling.
So I already had this “timing is everything” theme swimming around in my brain during the super bowl broadcast. Than here comes this young man Chris Matthews, who had never caught a pass in the NFL, making four receptions – two of them long and spectacular in the big game.
Even within the game, the timing of Malcolm Butler’s interception in the final seconds of the contest gives perhaps unworthy weight to not only his play, but the Seahawks’ decision to throw the ball at that critical juncture. If it occurred earlier in the game, or in any other game, it probably wouldn’t be revisited like it will be every February for years to come.
Corporations obviously think the big game is the time to spend ridiculous – honestly foolish is probably a better adjective – sums of money to advertise; not only the enormous spot rate charged by the network, but paying megabucks to A-list superstar actors to pretend they’re buying a burger or whatever.
I particularly get a kick out of the little companies you’ve never heard of who blow what probably amounts to their entire annual marketing budget for that one spot. There were three or four of these this year and I can’t remember their names; which is the point.
I don’t know if there is a lesson in all of this, but I do know that “timing is everything” is cancelled out by another aphorism, to wit, “everything evens out in the end.” Whether we’re lucky or unfortunate because of timing, the true worth of our actions or accomplishments is ultimately resolved over the long haul.
Dan Irvin is Secretary of the Board of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Vice-President of the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board, and a member of the Heartland Community College Foundation Board.
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