Saturday, February 08, 2014

The Olympic Reality

Every four years, the Olympics comes to town. Not really in my town but in the town of Socci for this year's Winter Olympics event of 2014.  And in the town of our backyards as communities and families gather to watch and celebrate the moments of this great spectacular graceful movements through space and time.

One word can describe the olympics and that is love.  And during the same time as the Olympics, our country is celebrating the arrival of the Beatles 50 years ago to America and John Lennon's song of Imagine ties in well to the olympic dream where we are asked to imagine a place where there is no hatred and no war at all.

What is also wonderful is how the paralympics uses the same facilities from the official games and they claim it as their own to face their challenges on their own scale.

The pageantry always fascinates me as there is a preamble to the ceremony when there is  a foretaste of the artistry that is to come.  Then a few moments later there is the great pageantry of the world being featured lined up on the continents displayed on the ocean like floor and the presentation of dreams of an 8 year old child is brought before us. While London had the beds of children,  Socci had a child floating above the crowd and later walked amongst the stage floor.

Then the Olympians can walk in to the stadium with all of their colors and the flags waving in front of them.  They are talking and communicating with one another. Yet without borders of fences and security lines. They are people who embrace one another. Embrace their dreams and cross over into other countries to train and be part of their team as well.

I would love to see that in our world today on a more regular basis.

All of that pageantry and pomp. That celebratory force that a country once tucked in the corner of the world has now found its voice and is on the world stage.

Then there is the pain that some of the Olympians feel when they suffer and endure injuries. Yet the game and show does continue to go on.  Many times the athletes do not show those grimacing moments but carry on to display their fortitudes of courage.  Going down the mountains and on the ice rink.  Moving at fast lightning speed as they attempt to go faster, higher and stronger.

When I think of the Olympics, I also think of the word Transformation. Transformation comes in three forms.  It comes with the general facilities of where the athletes are competing, then it comes in the form of bringing forth a director's creative dream and then the spectacular competition of the athletes as they compete for their medals.

There is an athlete's village where everyone gathers in and mingles and lives in a harmony.

And the beauty is that every 2 years, we get to witness this on a global stage whether it is winter or summer.  And as they always say, Let the games begin.