Guest Column:
By Cathy Elliott
We’ve been hearing a lot of criticism over the past few weeks about what has been called the worldwide “deification” of pop music icon Michael Jackson. I’m not quite sure what all the fuss is about. We do this all the time, not only with musicians, but with artists, athletes, actors, authors and those mysteriously famous others who defy any categorization or rational thought. Paris Hilton comes to mind.
If every successful businessperson in this country was set up on a pedestal the same way our NASCAR heroes are, chiropractors would never have another care in the world. America would have a permanent crick in its neck. So many people have made so much money that admiring their accomplishments has almost become a full-time job.
I guess deep down we know – or at least we’re relatively sure we know – that NASCAR superstars put their flame-retardant racing suits on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us.
Admittedly, it is kind of cool to imagine them doing stuff like descending into the depths of stately Edwards Manor, where their “work clothes” wait in somber splendor under a spotlight, before roaring out of a cave in the jaw-dropping Aflac-mobile. Or watching a relatively nondescript middle-aged man duck into a phone booth only to emerge seconds later in full Kellogg’s splendor before taking flight, faster than a speeding bullet.
Granted, you might need a special sort of superpower to even find a phone booth in this day and age, but you get the drift.
The entertainment media would largely be plunged into bankruptcy if we didn’t have an avid interest in our icons, heroes and yes, even our villains. It sometimes seems that when someone earns a big pile of money, they garner respect at the same time and in the same proportion, and we, in turn, look up to them. We admire them. They seem to be set apart from us, to be different somehow.
But are they really? Does a man’s net worth necessarily equal his net measure of success in life, or define his value as a person? I can tell you from personal experience that, in NASCAR terms at least, the answer is an unqualified “no.”
One of the very best things about working in a public relations capacity in NASCAR is the opportunity to have kind of a “backstage pass” with the drivers. They often come to racetracks to participate in media events and such, and you spend time with them and get to know them and have conversations with them that most folks just never get the chance to have. Preconceptions fly out the window faster than kids fly out the door on the last day of school.
But like those students eager for the start of summer, lessons can find you and teach you something when you least expect it. You see things in a different light. You learn the difference between a person and a persona.
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