I think of snow as a miracle. Somehow this water, which can be a liquid, solid or gas has a fourth form, a composite of liquid and ice in the form of a flake. It could come down as sleet or rain, and yet somehow we get snow.
The olympics are a showcase of miracles - we collectively roll our eyes at the sob stories they tell that highlight the obstacles the athletes have overcome, but it is nothing short of a miracle that they made it there. They are a success, and the mixture of hope and passion and motivation and skill combine to form a magic potion for a gold medal. Those with excess arrogance flirt with karma and often times pay for it -- ask Bode Miller and Lindsey Jacobellis about their past Olympic experiences. The stories like that of Dan Jansen in speed skating and Aksel Svindal in skiing are nothing short of miraculous. Sure, they have grit and heart and passion (not to mention raw athletic ability), and by calling what they do a miracle I'm not trying to sell them short because they deserve what they've accomplished and are every bit responsible... but isn't the fact that sometimes our performances exceed our physical capacities (and occasionally the laws of physics) because of our strength of mind at least a little bit of a miracle?
We are surrounded by miracles everyday, and Mr. Wikstrom is right... thanks to modern technologies our expectations mean we don't appreciate the little (and not so little) miracles we see every day. Whether you're religious or not, it seems wrong not to be grateful to whatever the force was that brought us here to appreciate them. Man walking on the moon, the hubble telescope, deep sea exploration, docking with space stations, breaking the sonic boom, heck, even xrays & MRIs give me moments of wonder. Where did this collective sense of excitement and wonder go? Why is nothing impressive anymore?
I think to an extent figure skating is a good answer to this. Ever since those judges got in trouble in Salt Lake City in 2002, the judging criteria got more stringent to alleviate accusations that things were fixed. I read this article (and it wasn't this one or this one, but everyone is talking about it...). They've taken the emotion and the excitement out of skating. When I see the scores, they mean nothing to me. The judges are secret and are unable to do their job without video footage. I don't think you should be judged on how you are in the millisecond analysis of your jumps because that's not why we watch. If I couldn't tell a flaw with my naked eye why should they be judged on it? Why as our technology has our improved, have our expectations?
What I have noticed is that falls used to be rare... and not anymore. In fact this year a fall-less performance seems to be a rarity and even then, I don't see the flawless and emotionally charged routines that I remember. There are so many requirements for the routines that people aren't doing things that they used to, and creativity is so much less important. I don't even know the american skaters anymore (I followed Sarah Hughes, Nicole Bobek, Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, and Nancy Kerrigan year round and pestered my family with facts as we watched), and there was a time when they looked like real women rather than pre-adolescent girls. What's happened? Figure skating IS boring when you don't know the rivalries and don't have the excitement of an emotionally charged performance that could be a game changer because emotions don't matter.
Maybe its just the circles I'm in, but the olympics don't seem as big this year. Where is that big surge of pride when the US gets a gold despite being the underdog? Are we all too wrapped up in the recession and the political tug of war to get excited and be proud of our country? I just miss the patriotism and the appreciation of the cluster of miracles that are the athletic performances in the olympics... but really just miss the appreciation of all of life's miracles like we used to have (we landed on the moon!)...
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