Diversion is necessary

A blog that had become important to us during the regular NASCAR season is no more. John Daly's The Daly Planet, which served as a fixture among our weekly internet stops, said good bye last Wednesday, Feb 4.

The Daly Planet was dedicated to covering the coverage, and was read by fans and by the media types--which made it not only an interesting and informative read, but a great discussion forum in the comments section.

John explains:

The Daly Planet is ending operations on Wednesday, February 4th. This was an online project originally created to watch the new NASCAR TV partners get through their first season back in 2007. There were certainly some memorable moments that year.

We decided to continue for year two and the story was tremendous growth through fan interaction and the cooperation of those same TV partners.

We can understand that. He produced the blog as long as he felt he could serve the purpose and original intent of the site. But, as I read on, something caught my attention and made me think about our own purpose and intent:

Priorities are rapidly changing in the world right now. This includes professional sports from top-to-bottom. NASCAR is deeply affected and talking about the pros and cons of TV broadcasts suddenly has much less meaning.

It seems to me that John was saying that diversions are not important in these difficult economic times.

I would argue to the contrary--it is in tough times that diversions and entertainment are needed the most. It is alright to worry, and there are certainly many things we should worry about, but, to prevent mass psychosis, a society needs to have something with which to take a break from the worries of daily life.

That has been true about civilization from the very beginning. The Greeks had their drama, public discourses, and athletic competition. The Romans had their orgies, gladiators, and lions(okay, not all diversions were a good thing) and also some public discourse. During the Great Depression, movie theaters thrived, because people needed to get away from the worries of daily life and be entertained. And the latest movie always made for good conversation.

Today, we have all different sorts of diversions, and we need them now more than ever. Sure, we can worry about what is going to happen to the workers who get a job repairing government buildings after the job is complete and the money runs out, but, one can only spend so much time worrying. We should be happy we have our blogs and forums, and other sites available for public discourse, and the sports and other entertainment we enjoy to relax a bit.

Rather than being an excuse to stop talking about the things that entertain us and keep us occupied in our non-worry time, the economic woes we are experiencing should be an excuse to continue our discourses on the sports and entertainment we love.

NASCAR racing always gives us something to talk or write about, so let's celebrate it. We can worry about what the government is going to do to us, but the government will do what it will do, no matter how much or how little we worry about it. We need the time to spend not worrying, so we might as well enjoy it.