I love blogging about stuff after everyone else is done blogging about stuff. Remember, this is the blog where you learned about Rebecca Black− a full two years after everyone else blogged about Rebecca Black.
So in the spirit of retro blogging- let’s talk about the Olympics.
I was, at best, a casual Olympics viewer. I’d usually get in about 15 minutes or so of watching after Amelia fell asleep before I’d also fall asleep. I’d check the medal count a couple times a day to make sure we were ahead of China and read articles on the internet about stuff that caught my interest. In other words, I kept up with the Olympics in about the same way I keep up with just about everything else.
As I get older, I’m inspired more and more by the inspirational stories – Here’s a guy from Sudan who lost most of his family in conflict there who is now competing as an Independent Olympian. Here’s a woman representing her nation’s women for the first time ever (all of them). Here’s a guy with no legs who is now competing with the fastest runners in the world. We’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years, all of us, but how nice is it to see that there just might be a future for humanity after all?
The competitions themselves are, naturally, remarkable celebrations of will and determination. You can’t really say enough about Michael Phelps, though I think the network did attempt to test that hypothesis. Thanks to technology, diet, training, emphasis and the fact that there are 7 billion of us, the world is currently producing the fastest human swimmers, runners and beach volleyball hitters the world has ever seen. Ever.
We, the television viewer, also got to learn about the difference between British and American terms, visit lots of area pubs and discuss Kate Middleton’s outfit, but, you know, Michael Phelps.
A couple thousand years ago, a bunch of Greek City states put aside their differences every now and then to hold the ancient Olympics. We’ve never really mastered the art of putting aside our differences, but it is nice to know that we’re able to at least ignore them for a little while.
Coming up next week, I plan on blogging about the 2008 presidential election. You heard it here first.
