I was watching the Olympics last night, and it was a men’s volleyball game between USA and LAT. I wasn’t even 100% sure what country LAT was… I guessed (correctly) Latvia, but it still brought me a moment’s pause. Geography whiz, I am clearly not.
I watched these men playing, and one camera shot in particular was on one of the Latvian men’s faces. I thought “he looks a lot like so-and-so”. This man, from a country that I’m not entirely sure where is located, and I wasn’t entirely sure of the name of, looked a lot like someone I knew. Regardless of his nationality, or skin color, or eye shape, or anything else… looked like someone I know, and this made me think a little more in general about the whole concept of the Olympic games.
The Olympics are a beautiful, amazing thing… because it is the one time that the ENTIRE PLANET gets on board with the SAME THING. We all come together to play a game. That everyone knows the same rules for. Everyone wants the same thing, everyone wants to do that particular dive perfectly, or spike that ball over the net just so. And for the next three and ½ years until the next Olympics, all over the planet, people will still be playing that same game, until the next wonderful party where we get to do it all over again.
Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could just remember this all the other days of the year? No one cares what religion you are when you are leaping over those hurdles on the track. NOT AT ALL. They don’t care if you wear a cross on your neck or a turban on your head, grow a beard or shave every ounce of hair on your body. You can worship little green people on Mars if you want to, but if you can fly effortlessly over those uneven bars and land beautifully, everyone cheers. Those strong, determined girls from Romania, those talented girls from China, that amazing girl who they have named an entire stunt after… they all want the same thing. They all practice the same moves, on the same equipment, for hours every day.
We are all one. We all live on this same Earth. We play the same games… we cry and hurt and laugh and wish, just the same. Imagine if we put this kind of one-ness into cleaning our oceans, or fixing our atmosphere, or feeding the children of our planet.
What a beautiful few weeks.
hiddenblessing 