If you asked 100 people to describe me not a single description would include "sports fan". I do like the big events though and yesterday, while explaining how amazing the NCAA tournament is to my daughter, I found myself describing the perfect story. By this I mean a story we are naturally drawn to. March Madness has all of the good stuff and none of the bad stuff. With a good conflict, clear winners and losers, dates certain, interesting characters, and rules we all know and understand - what is not to like about this story? I imagine this is also why political races are so fun to follow. Add a dose of celebrity and you have the Oscars or American Idol.
So if we want people to pay attention to things that we care about we need to figure out how to tell better stories about them. What is more interesting to you: the Final Four or Education Reform? I care a lot about education in our country and even I would rather follow the Final Four. How do we make these other stories, that are so critical for us in the long term, just as interesting?