Why I love the Olympics

I am sorry to see the Olypmics some to a close but what a joyful ride it has been!

What I love most about the Olympics is - it is a time we can forget aboout the failing economy, the increasing joblessness, the overburdened healthcare system, oil prices, the presidential race and all that other downward spiral current event news that we are blasted with day in and day out. The Olypmics replace that junk food for the mind with nurtition for the soul. Inspiring stories, triumphs, defeats, sportmans like behavior , beating the odds, making the odds, surpassing the odds. Gosh - if you can't get inspired to be a better person after the Olympics - then that's a problem!

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved the Olympics. Some games I have been able to immerse myself more than others. Althletes like Olga Korbut, Nadia Comeneci, oh who was the Italian skier that was so cute about half a lifetime ago? and the U.S. hockey team in all there glory wrapped in the American flag with the one guy asking "where's my father?" or the American speed skater with thigh like tree trunks....they were all amazing individuals with great character.


By the way, it is so nice to see the US Basketball Team demonstrate sportsmanship rather than displaying bad attitudes of (hopefully) the past. Hats off to Michael Phelps for being a champion and a humble one at that, to Liuken who accepted her silver medal with dignity and to the 41 year old swimmer who missed her gold but showed the world she is a champion.

Shortly after the opening ceremonies, I was on tech support to India for nearly 2 hours. To pass the time, I asked the operator what he liked best about the opening ceremony. For him, it was the awesome show of pagentry. For me, it was the Walk of Nations. Watching each country march by, to see how many countries there are that make up this world - and every 4 years I am amazed to hear countries announced that I have never heard of or know very little about. To see the uniforms, observe how many are on the team, see how they interact, I find this fascinating. This was more enjoyable than watching the awesome display of unified movement in the drummers - which to me - was awesome in it's miliary precision. If anyone noticed the drummers were wearing gold army boots. An interesting message.

Hats of to the the athletes for pursuing their dream with gusto.