Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, May 21, 2020, 10:42 a.m.

Mainly I have been writing about stock car racing.

Mainly stock car racing is what is going on, whether at the dirt track in Laurens or the paved superspeedway in Darlington.

The gates aren’t open, but the cars are going around and around. I’m sure there’s a metaphor on our times going around and around, too.

Racing is most of what I can watch without knowing who’s going to win.

Sure, I could develop a keen interest in the professional cornhole circuit. I don’t know whether that’s live or not. I don’t know who’s going to win. Unfortunately, I don’t care.

I hope it’s like one of those old Disney nature movies when it rains in desert, and then the desert comes back to life. Time-lapse film shows flowers blooming, eggs cracking and little roadrunners or something emerging. Wonderful World of Color used to show those, often narrated by Rex Allen.

That, I hope, is the metaphor about sports, which is the metaphor about life.

Maybe we can be careful enough that slowly we can rebuild the former ways of life, and I can go out again chatting with coaches and athletes, snapping photos, breathing the fresh, often humid, air of athletic drama’s human competition, which quite often includes the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

 

Take a look at my new website, Laurens County Sports. It’s undoubtedly going to be better when Laurens County has actual sports again.

If you enjoy my insights about racing and other subjects, make a small pledge of support. Rewards are in place for pledges of $5 or more. If 1/10 of my followers and Facebook friends pledge $1 a month, I’ll be set. Read all about it here.

If you yearn for my writing in larger doses, I’ve written quite a few books. Most are available here.

Lightning in a Bottle, the first of my two motorsports novels, is now available in audio (Audible, Amazon, iTunes) with the extraordinary narration of Jay Harper.

My eighth novel, a political crime thriller, is called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It’s right up to date with the current political landscape in the country.

My writing on other topics that strike my fancy is posted here.