GLENN: So let me follow this path down the road for a second.
What did the Super Bowl commercials really teach us last night? Because, remember, you don't spend that kind of money without all kinds of testing. You're not sitting around in the room going, oh, I don't know. Let's throw this out and see what happens with this one.
You're doing all kinds of testing. So what did that testing apparently tell the ad makers? That Americans are tired. That Americans want hope. That Americans want somebody to articulate a vision that is good and hopeful. That we work together. We come together. That we become our greater selves again. That we are truly still the Americans that we've always wanted to be.
That's -- that's what the Super Bowl told us last night. All of those commercials, that's what they were selling to us. And, remember, you can only sell something to people who believe they have a need for it.
Our need is someone just saying, good. We are. We know it. We know it. We're good. We're misguided. We have each gone his own way.
We've -- we've lost sight of what's important. We -- we've been convinced. And some of it with reason. That, you know what, we're not the country that we thought we were.
And yet, at the same time, we are much better than the country we think we are now.
It's really interesting how life is all about balance. That's all it is.
I told my son you, you know, he's -- we've battled back and forth. I want to talk to you about this, I've been meaning to talk to you about this. I really need your help on something.
But I -- you know, I took away his -- you know, all of his gaming and everything else. And this was about two years ago. And we went through some really tough times.
And took it away. And he finally understood, I'm not taking it away because I'm a mean dad. I'm taking it away because, dude, you can't handle it. You can't handle it. You get lost in it. It's a balance. You have to be able to turn it off and read a book.
You can't become consumed by it. But isn't that really not just games? Isn't that everything we do?
Everything from our job, identifying our -- who we are with our job. To whatever our vice is.
We have a problem right now that we don't -- I don't think we believe in forgiveness anymore. I'm not sure we do. I don't think we -- I think we just believe now that there are some people that aren't worthy of receiving forgiveness. You know, I'll never forgive you for that. What does that even mean?
It's hard to forgive, especially when somebody else, you know, is -- when they don't seem worthy of it. I mean, this guy -- this guy -- I mean -- what? Do you want me to just forgive him? Yeah, kind of. No. The guy doesn't even get it. Somehow or another, we want people to be humbled enough, we want them -- we want to see them give us the reason to forgive them.
Now, imagine how ironic that seems to God. Really. Think of that.
Think of -- think of Jesus in the end. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
He wasn't up there going, these bastards, I'm never going to forgive you! I'm never -- you're not humble enough. I'm not going to forgive you.
Can you imagine that? No.
But I think as hard as it is to forgive other people, I think it's harder to forgive ourselves.
We -- it's -- it's -- it's amazing because we don't understand balance. It's exactly the same difficulty we have in forgiving other people. It's humility and worthiness.
Forgiving yourself, which is the only way to really make a change, it requires both humility and self-worth. Those things never go together. Does anybody ever notice that? Humility and self-worth.
If everything is going well, we begin to think, oh, yeah, you know what, we did it. We figured it out. I did it. I was -- you wouldn't -- honey, you wouldn't believe. I mean, I was amazing. I have just threaded this needle like nobody else ever has.
We begin to believe that it was. Look at me.
And we become arrogant. And then, when things aren't going so well, I failed. Man, I'm stupid. What is wrong with me?
Man. Just the dumbest -- I'm the worst.
Hide, lest ye see your nakedness, the snake whispered to Eve.
You know what the problem with politicians? The politician is a direct reflection of us.
And that's the problem today. You notice they have a lot of self-worth, no humility. They have the answer, and they're not even going to consider any other answer. That's the answer.
Look at what -- look at what social media is doing to us. Social media has invited us to share. But are we sharing, or are we showing? We're not sharing. We're showing. We're showing other people how smart we are, how rich we are, how happy we are, how complete we are.
That's what we're doing. We're showing the world what we want them to see. They don't see the rest. They see all the great things.
And yet, studies have now shown, between 2010 and 2018 with millennials, there is a 28 percent rise in suicide and a 40 percent increase in depression. Why?
Because we're doing the exact opposite of what that Facebook button says, share. We're not sharing. We're showing. And what are we showing? We're showing lies.
That's really what it is. I'm just going to start taking pictures of all the worst times in my life. I think that's what I'm going to do. Just, when I look the worst, when my family is arguing. Just start posting all that stuff.
We all think -- I shouldn't say that. How many of us think that we're the doctor? We're the doctor. Yeah, I can fix that. You know what, let me help you with that. Okay.
It's not that hard. We forget, we're not the doctor. We're in the same hospital, man. We just have different problems. But we all think that we're wearing the white coat, when all of us really are wearing that stupid, I don't know who designed it, but we're wearing that stupid smock that opens up in the back and exposes the worst end of us. That's what we're doing.
And we're all walking around in the hospital, you know, in those things with the back end hanging out, going, "Yes, well, I'm here to help you. Listen to me, I can help you."
If we could just realize that we're wearing the surgical gown and how ridiculous we look, we would be humble.
We all make mistakes. All of us. And then we try to bury them. We try to forget them. Justify them. And they gnaw at us. And they bend us. And they twist us. And they distort us. That's what's happening to America. That's what's happening to each of us. We've made critical errors. We've made certain decisions that are bending us and shaping us and twisting us out of shape.
We need a chiropractor for our soul, man. We need somebody just to go, "There. Now. See. See, that's the way it's supposed to be."
And if we don't stand up straight, pretty soon, it won't feel right when you do. I think God laughs at us all the time. I mean, because he sees us in the surgical gowns. He sees us with our worst end. He's just shaking his head, looking at us, going, what the hell. (sighing)
Here's what the Super Bowl commercials told us last night: Remember who you are. You've forgotten. Remember who you are. Remember who you are. Why you're here. And what you can be.
Stop trying so hard to convince everyone else and yourself of what you are. Because you're none of those things. You're a person just like everybody else. And you've got some really great things that you probably minimize. You probably don't even think because they're yours. I don't know. It just believes easy to me. No, that doesn't -- that's not as good as that.
And we're all afraid of something. We're all afraid that somebody is going to see the back of our hospital gown and our shame and our fear of exposure gets in the way of admitting, we're not all that. Instead of just shaking our head and going, jeez, man, we're all so much alike. Why don't we do that? Because we don't share.
All of us are frightened of something. Of something.
I think being found out is the biggest common fear. Being found out that, I don't know, we're not good enough. We're not smart enough. We don't ask questions because we don't want to feel stupid.
We -- we -- we go along on things that we don't really -- we don't really know. I don't know. Everybody else. I don't want to be different. I'm not that smart.
If people only knew that I, whatever, fill in the blank. If people found out that I -- fill in the blank.
But that's the lie. So what are we going to do about it?
