I strongly dislike the concept of celebrity.

Is there really anyone out there? Seriously?

Let me finish that questions - Is there seriously anyone out there... who truly finds stimulation from the mindless drab which television has now become? Specifically, I refer to the celebrity-centric nation we and our cable input have become.

When I turn on the television, I find it refreshing to watch a news program on which the main headline is truly news, relevant to the human condition and truly relevant on a global, national or of course local level. Instead, I turn on the news to see which celebrity has made the dumbest move the day prior - fortunately for the mindless, this happens often enough to keep our attention.

This has really struck me over the past few days as I watch a global tradition which unites nations - both independent patriotism and uniting the 205 participating countries of part of a global system. You may know this as the Olympics. What has amazed me is that carefully woven into this event bringing together thousands of athletes is a true element of celebrity. Don't get me wrong, I'm an advodate of the red white and blue, and winning as many metals as we can is my hope, but the US press has turned Michael Phelps into a celebrity temporarily taking over for the likes of Britney and friends. I find myself counting the number of times I'm watching a sport other than swimming that I hear a reference to this amazing human being that is Phelps.

It worries me that what we allow ourselves to - even using Phelps' feats beyond human capabilities - find escape from what's important by deflecting current events and concerns and finding solace in the struggles, pains and obstacles which other face. Instead, we should be facing - unified - the means in which we as individuals can better our lives, our society, our nation, our town, etc. We shouldn't be concentrating and putting our faith into one person to carry the weight of a nation, but rather the 647 athletes representing our country with amazing talents which far those of us sitting at home watching. Phelps has almost been turned into a comic book hero. It oft seems as if Phelps were to fail and only garner seven gold medals, it'd have equal weight to Superman leaving for a few years or Batman no reigning over Gotham's streets.

So how does Phelps relate to what use usually see as celebrity? He's our current distraction. He's our current means of forgetting that we individually can make a difference in our day to day lives. He's America's current alter-ego.

And shall I even compare the amazing Phelps to Britney? (Dare I?) Well, you see regardless of which way you look at it - our society loves tso detach ourselves from our everyday lives and deflect how we can do better. So its not a comparison of Phelps to Britney, but a comparison of how we view them. Both of these fixtures are simply a means for us to escape our reality. For Phelps (and Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, etc) they take us to a mindset of what we wish we could be; for Britney (and Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, etc), its assurance that we're not as screwed up as someone else out there.

Instead, we need to start to focus on reality and how to make a difference with the person that the good Lord has actually blessed us to be - ourselves. We need to pay closer attention to how we spend and increase the level of debt in the US and what that means for the US economy. We need to look at the four seasons we used to have in Connecticut and realize how short the fall and spring have become - Global Warming isn't a rumor and there are things that we can do to keep Mother Nature happy. We need to look at the obese society we've become and how the way that we, as adults, eat serves as an example of how the children around us eat - how our lack of exercise serves as an example of how the younger generation can maintain our obesity. If you're still reading this, I can assume safely that you agree.

And maybe there lies the problem. If you're still reading this, you probably agree.

Unfortunately, the majority of people probably left this blog to find out what someone more popular than me is doing. It was the easiest way for those lost readers to forget that they too can be part of our solution... the celebrities can't do it alone, you know.