It's not my all-time favorite TV commercial. In fact, the entire series of ads seems worse than third-rate. Is the burger chain trying to say that people somehow intuitively know whose burgers are better? Or are they saying that anyone who'd buy their competitors' burgers is less intelligent than a 1-day old child?
I've probably seen those ads dozens of times but I've still got no idea what the advertising agency's message is, or why they chose to say it that way.
The reason is because I'm pretty sure a 1-day old baby doesn't have much of an opinion about whether a burger comes from golden arches or from the crown-wearing competitor down the street. I'm not even sure a 1-day old baby knows a double cheeseburger from a bathtub.
But I could be wrong: guess I'll have to wait till the next popular opinion poll tells me what 1-year olds really think ... and whether they truly prefer so-and-so's double cheeseburgers over so-and-so's burger before making up my mind.
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I wasn't "born yesterday" and if you're reading this post I'm assuming that neither were you. Not only was I was born more than ten thousand days ago (chances are that you were, too) but the simple fact is that I don't remember a single thing that happened when I was 1 day old.
Not one single thing ... and yet in Big Picture terms, that day was such a critical event in my life. Yet if you took all the days of my life, your life, and all the days of everybody that was born since then and added them together, the total amount still wouldn't represent a dot the size of housefly's eyelash on the earth's timeline since the creation.
We just haven't been here that long. It makes me wonder about self-help gurus who claim to have "formulated enlightened answers about life."
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I wish I could say I'm amused at how many people I know who adhere to and manage their lives according to daytime TV pundits, best-selling self-help authors, astrology charts and obscure new "self empowerment" theologies, but I'm not. It's more like feeling your eyes sting after being struck in the heart with a rock ... and then wanting to weep out loud at their loss.
Because in each case someone's path is drifting away toward inner space because they're convinced that in the latest new book, talk show appearance or DVD release, they've found an ultimate truth (an "ultimate" truth means "The last or furtherest," by the way) and the key to their success and the answer their eternal well-being.
Never mind that none of those amazing new "insights" existed until the self-help book and video industry created that profitable niche market for itself.
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Like the fast food commercials I mentioned, today's self-help gurus strike me as hollow and self-amused. The book jackets and video labels I've seen seem consistent on this interesting point: the author (or the dude in the video) worked for years trying to manage their own life without success and failed before arriving at or discovering their bold new approach. So in other words, that guy (or lady) who seems so smart on the screen was just the same as you or me ... and spent years and years messing up, making the same of mistakes and missteps as you and I.
Excuse me, but Huh? Then why are we expected to believe that guy's teachings ... especially if he also claims to be "continually growing, learning and expanding the eye of his mind"? How do we know that their teachings won't change, grow or expand again during the next 10 years? Sounds to me like they're already admitting that their knowledge is incomplete (but of course, that new book and DVD combo is scheduled for release next spring).
Here's something else. Except for some fringe kooks, so far as I know the self-help gurus all admit to being imperfect and flawed from birth. So why should I believe he's perfect now?
And guess what else: Exactly none of the self-help maestros have been bold and confident enough to proclaim in court that they are God's own and unique son. Neither has any of them ever declared that faith in his personal sacrifice has personally assured them eternal life ... and not just a "happy happy" life where all their goals and dreams come true.
Wonder why we haven't seen that?
Because I wasn't born yesterday, I'd have a hard time believing what any of these "teachers" taught unless they offered incontrovertible proof. What kind of proof would get my attention? Like say, returning from the grave after a public execution, teaching to hundreds and hundreds of witnesses for 40 days and then ascending into heaven.
Seems like someone who claimed to have all the answers about life and death would be willing to back up their claims by providing evidence ... or at least provide a demonstration that what they said and taught was true by putting their own life on the line. Is that asking too much for the limited time offer of $24.95?
It's not ... because eternity is more precious than that. And that's why no one should trust their eternity to any prophet, teacher, shaman, seer, guru, sage, astrologer or any "self-help authority" who was born flaws and imperfect, and who didn't literally prove that everything ... every single word ... he said was true. Literally.
After all, I wasn't born yesterday ... and neither were you.
