All work and no play…

Being otherwise engaged, I was unable to attend last night’s torch festivities, but I knew I’d be missing something good. Kamloops is especially accomplished at putting on a show.

By all accounts, and especially reading today’s Daily News, a great time was had by all.

This whole torch thing is hype, of course, designed to get people involved in supporting the Games, but there’s nothing wrong with that. At the same time, it provides an occasion for people to get together, enjoy themselves, and feel good about where they live. (As Rex Murphy said the night before, Canada is defined by the way we treat each other, and it’s worth celebrating.)

I’m constantly annoyed at all the Scrooges who have made it their mission to ruin the Winter Olympics for everyone else. These complainers are of the mind that life is all about one thing — whatever their thing happens to be. They’re the same ones in our own community who carp about too much money being spent on the arts.

In their view, everything we do should be about the less fortunate, about social issues, health care, poverty, housing, drug addictions — and never about the joy of life for our citizenry as a whole. Kamloops has nothing to apologize for in that regard — we are one of the most caring, giving communities on this earth, and the same could be said about B.C. and Canada.

There’s nothing wrong, and everything right, about pausing every now and then just to celebrate and enjoy, and celebrating and enjoying athletic excellence is as good a reason as any. Regardless of the Games, or the arts, or any other form of entertainment, all those very important social causes will still be waiting for us the next morning, and we’ll still fight to do something about them.

How dull life would be without time to play.