Goodbye Beijing

I am going to miss my nightly dose of the Olympics. For one who seldom watches television, I have put in quite a few hours watching the various athletic competitions. Today, for example, I really got into the gold round of men's volleyball, USA versus Brazil. I will probably go four years now without watching a single serve, kill , or spike, but I was totally into it today.

Then there's the weird stuff. A team of women, for example, tossing hula hoops around, catching them, kicking them over to others. Who made this "sport" up? I mean, it was spectacular, the precision with which the women could toss these things around while doing flips and somersaults and so on. It was great entertainment. I'm not persuaded, though, how this ranks as a bona fide sport, while softball is being retired from the Games.

There is a lot to remember from this one. Baltimore's own Michael Phelps bringing home eight golds. That Jamaican Bolt guy (great name!) leaving the others to not even eat his dust, as the dust had settled by the time the silver medalist shot by. The platform diving. The acrobatics - thrills of victory, agonies of de feet missing their mark.
This Olympics bridged a lot of summer for me. We watched the opening ceremonies at my sister's house back East. I watched much of the first week with my son, way too late into the night. Watched most of this past week pretty much on my own, occasionally hollering for my wife to come in and see some amazing feat of athletic prowess.

I tend to be like most others and root for my own country. But I also get a kick out of it when some obscure country comes up with a medal. I love the nations that send six athletes over. You can bet that country, all 35,000 people or whatever, is sitting in pubs or community buildings or neighbor's houses and rooting on their people like they're family, if they have television.
And then there's the big significance of the games, even though I know it's pretend. Yes, in the real world outside the "bird's nest", Russia is flexing its muscle in Georgia, and people are still at war here and there. But for a couple weeks, it is nice to believe in the ideal of the spirit of the Oympic games - fair and just competition, pure ameteurism with no reward except a medal around your neck (ok, and for the Michael Phelps types, a million-dollar likeness on the Wheaties or Corn Flakes box and a few other endorsements, and never having to work again in your life if you don't want to...but he's a bit of an exception, eh?) I enjoy suspending disbelief and going with the program for two weeks, before returning to harsh reality.

Anyhow, the Olympics will now be replaced by....national conventions of our two political parties. I'm sorry, but although I realize the future of our nation depends more on the next President than on the American Olympic Sand Volleyball team (but, man weren't they good???), yet somehow I don't have the same level of interest to tune in to the endless posturing and pandering. Perhaps we could just put Obama and McCain up there on the balance beam and see how far to the left or right they really fall.