Admittedly, Shallow Persons Awareness Week is the silliest holiday I’ll be blogging about this week. According to the Blue Mountain e-card website, this is a holiday set aside to “acknowledge and embrace your shallowness.”
If you’ve ever seen an episode of The Tonight Show in which Jay Leno does one of his Jaywalking segments, then you really have to wonder if we aren’t already wallowing in our shallowness.
Here are a few of the questions Leno asked, followed by the answers he got during his October 15 and October 28 segments:
Q: What street is the New York Stock Exchange on?
A: New York Boulevard.
Q: If I gave you an English pound, what would that be?
A: A pound of money.
Q: Whose face is on the one dollar bill?
A: The president.
Q: Whose picture is on the Susan B. Anthony dollar?
A: I have no idea.
Q: How much is the Susan B. Anthony dollar worth?
A: Ten dollars.
Q: What does Bush 43 mean?
A: Is it a drink?
Q: Who was the last president to get inaugurated?
A: Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Q: What war was John McCain a POW in?
A: The Cold War.
Q: Barack Obama has a slogan, what is it?
A: All the way.
Wow. These answers are stunning. It really makes me wonder if the producers intentionally look for people who clearly don’t have a clue. That has to be the case, doesn’t it? At least, I hope it’s the case. Let’s assume that it is and make this conversation more abstract.
Is ignorance the same as shallowness? One of the definitions of shallow is “lacking depth of intellect, emotion, or knowledge.” But lacking depth in intellect doesn’t necessarily mean a person lacks character, or drive, or compassion.
But what in the world does it say about ourselves when we have a holiday that encourages us to embrace our shallowness?