Last night, as I reflected on the Super Bowl’s entertainment, the words of Langston Hughes sang in my mind:

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

The NFL understands that building strong teams depends on embracing the human and athlete who has ascended to the heights of athleticism within a body that presents in differing shades and who has matured within differing cultures, geographies, family systems, and socioeconomic realities.  Through their choice of performers, the NFL expressed their commitment to diversity.

As I left the Super Bowl gathering,  I reflected on the half-time show and its political statements, energy, and celebration: the utility poles symbolic of the administration’s betrayal and corruption in Hurricane Maria’s aftermath; the sugar cane fields call back to slavery and colonialism; the beauty and innocence of children; a day in the life on a Caribbean island; our global and regional interconnectedness; the insistence on another language capable of expressing the fullness of life.

Then I pondered the absence of English subtitles and considered how the language gap prevented me from fully appreciating the performance, and then understood how my attention to words on the bottom of the screen would have distracted from the story being told so richly through the imagery.  Ultimately the audience learned that the capacity for vibrant human experience is one we all share, and a people’s experience does not have to seek legitimacy through the telling of it in the language of the colonizer.  

I returned again to the idea of an all American half time show performed in Spanish, and I contemplated it as powerful symbolism: the United States’ opportunity gaps – economic, class, and gender –reduce the American dream to an incoherent longing.

And I also returned to the image of Bad Bunny grasping and thrusting his crotch.  I reflected on how women were portrayed: as musicians, performers, celebrants, props, and objects.  Intermingled in this modern performance was the old song of the women objectified.

My celebration and the excitement of the half time show was tempered by the sexual elements.  Human sexuality is a central, beautiful aspect of the human experience; sexualization dehumanizes and degrades that experience. 

As meaning-makers, humans seek simple categorizes to define each other, to understand events.  The halftime show was good.  The halftime show was bad.  Yet the truth usually rests in the middle.  A half-time show can reach the highest levels of political and artistic expression and also disappoint.  It can be both, and, but.

The tendency to lock citizens into categories has led to extreme polarization in the United States.  Yet the average American is not easily defined politically; the average American is decidedly politically average.  The murders of Charlie Kirk and health care exec. Brian Thompson were not, as depicted in some media, celebrated by “the left”.  An ethical being can hold both beliefs: dissent of the current republican administration and disapproval of murdering capitalists and political opponents.

The two-party system pushes the idea that one must be firmly in one political camp.  We have no obligation to be in either.  There is infinite space within the rational middle ground.  

This forced dichotomy plays out in many politically-charged topics, and we see it in the issue of illegal immigrants.  Both can be true: Illegal immigrants are here to work hard and create a beautiful life.  And a few illegal immigrants are here to escape consequences of crime in their own country.  

Both can be true:  ICE is catching and deporting immigrants who are here illegally.  And, ICE is racially profiling darker-skinned people, detaining legal immigrants and US citizens, and using forceful, deadly tactics.  

No American wants violent illegal immigrants here.  We have our hands full dealing with the mass shooters, thieves, white collar crooks, rapists and pedophiles within our own population.  

In the case of the Epstein files, both can be true:  There are republican and democrat men who respect women and girls and there are republican and democrat men in the Epstein files who are guilty of crimes against women and children.

No ethical American wants rapists to evade prosecution.  Release the files and let the consequences play out for everyone.

The transgender debate has been deeply polarizing, and Americans have been herded by the political factions into their respective places.  What if we don’t, like those who are questioning, have to choose a side?  What if we were to say, instead, “This is complicated, and I don’t have all the answers?” 

If we are to use the United States Constitution alone as our guiding document, an LBGTQIA+ person is entitled to full membership and respect within our shared human experience.  A minor presenting with identity questions should be treated as if embarking on a journey with a myriad of destinations – and met with kindness, counseling, and medical guidance.  

There exists the beautiful in between, where one keeps their thinking brain engaged and refuses to fall lock step with any party or belief system.  That space gives room for compassion, for empathy, for it’s complicated; let’s find a solution.

I loved the Super Bowl LX Bad Bunny half time show.  I liked it even better the second time.  And I felt disappointed. In my mind, there’s room for both.