How does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. Leave it to Bob Dylan to put things in perspective.

The Rocky Mountain News died today. As a news junky and someone who works with journalists everyday, it's hard not to take this personally. I expect the hurt to linger, like the emptiness people from Brooklyn must've felt when the Dodgers left town.

Nothing against the Denver Post. It's a great paper with a talented staff. There's just something about being a two paper town that Denver has lost. No more newspaper wars. No more reporters fighting over scoops and exclusives. No more two papers with two voices and two newsrooms motivating each other to earn the bragging rights that comes with being the very best in town.

Two paper towns are cosmopolitan and sophisticated. The people who live there are urban, intellectual, independent thinkers who can decide for themselves which paper they want to read. Some people even read both papers just to feel extra special. Or extra informed.

That's gone now and Denver is less of a city because of it. Maybe we will recover quickly. Maybe we will adjust and move on. Maybe we are so overwhelmed by all the job losses that we don't have room to care anymore about people losing their jobs.

Like everything else (except for Brooklyn Dodgers fans), in time this pain will pass. The news business is changing faster than we can imagine, and everyday we are creating new ways to communicate and inform people about the important issues that they care about. It is up to us to decide what kind of city we want Denver to be and what kind of culture we want to nourish.

But I have a feeling that the sense of loss and mourning that I feel today will stick with me for a while. How does it feel? Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.

For baseball fans, there is nothing like Spring Training. It is a time to forget about last year and look forward to a fresh start. It is a chance to shake off your blues and have a little fun in the sun. It's like a break but not a vacation. Teams establish their goals for the coming season, and every player works hard or they don't make the team.

Hope springs in Spring Training. Whether they are rookies or veterans, All Stars or Minor Leaguers, Hall of Famers or guys who only had a cup of coffee in the show, everyone has a positive outlook. There are no egos in Spring Training. Everyone mingles with the fans and signs autographs. Every fan has a chance to sit in the front row.

We could all use some spring training to help us escape from the daily dose of gloomy economic news that makes us dread getting out of bed in the morning, and refocus on what we need to do to improve personally and professionally. From a PR perspective, spring training would be a chance to examine our brand, polish our key messages and adjust our communications strategies. It would be a time for every player and coach to get on the same page and realize that only by playing as a team can we give ourselves a real shot at winning the title.

To paraphrase Nuke LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham, "Baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."

If we think about our own businesses and our own lives that way, we can boil it down and keep things simple. We can avoid getting hung up on the negative and focus on the positive. We can allow ourselves an opportunity to let go of our mistakes and start fresh.

In Spring Training, every team starts out in first place. The teams that win in October are the ones that maintain that perspective through all the ups and downs they encounter over the course of the long season.

On December 4, 1929, a West Virginia fiddler named Blind Alfred Reed recorded his most famous song, How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? With lyrics lamenting the cost of food, clothing, doctors, schools and taxes, the song seems especially appropriate today.

Watching Congress bicker over exactly what measures would most stimulate the economy, while hundreds of thousands of American workers lost their jobs, brought something clearly into focus. Even a blind man can see that fiddling while Rome is burning is just bad PR.

The difference between Blind Alfred Reed's time and today is that now, no one seems to be too worried about the poor man. We seem more concerned with large financial institutions than with the people who are losing their homes because of the bad business decisions those companies made. Congress seems fine with extending bailouts and tax breaks to big business, but it apparently will take more than an act of Congress to extend health care, food stamps and unemployment insurance to the poor. It might just require an act of God.

Without getting too preachy (Reed's song railed at preachers too), this seems like a lost PR opportunity for elected officials and our business leaders. Paying more attention to the health and safety of their constituents, stakeholders, and employees could help them sustain the kind of reputation that can withstand any crisis, now or in the future. It could help them create the kind of brand loyalty that can withstand any storm.

With more than 3.6 million U.S. jobs lost in the past year, smart politicians and savvy business leaders would be wise to consider how addressing the needs of the newly unemployed (and those who are scared to death the axe will fall on them) in a compassionate, respectful and urgent way would pay public relations dividends for years to come. Someone who needs help will remember the ones who helped them and grow to resent the ones who did not.

Now is the time for us to pull together in the common task of helping our economic recovery. PR pros can lay a major role in this effort by explaining why that mission is so important and communicating hope to those who see only despair.

The bang we get from that buck will be well worth the investment.