The Most Surprising Thing About the Olympics Is All of Us
How we, as a country, have rallied around Rio
We are almost halfway through the Olympics, and you know what’s the most surprising thing to have happened?
That we’re smiling. That we’re gushing. That we’re bombarding social media. That we’re asking people not to tell us the outcome of NBC-delayed events. That we’re meeting at the water cooler the next morning to rave about one of our U.S. athletes.
Why is that surprising, you ask?
Let’s turn the clock back to exactly one week ago, BEFORE the start of the Opening Ceremonies. What were we talking about, thinking about, bombarding social media about?
(Hint: It wasn’t about what a great Olympics this was forecast to be.)
We were talking about Zika. Environmentally unhealthy waters. Incomplete athlete accommodations. No hot water. Alleged sexual assaults by Olympians.
Not to mention the poverty in areas surrounding the Olympic zones.
So what does this one-week turnaround say about us?
Perhaps, that we’re just so desperate for good news that we’re willing to suspend the reality checks we normally go through in the course of a day.
Perhaps, that if our political leaders would stop trading insults and “gotchas” and doom-and-gloom scenarios and instead clearly outline their specific plans for addressing our problems that we might actually engage in the political process.
Perhaps, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that a swelling of national pride in what our young people are doing is just what is needed now for the American psyche.
So as we reach the halfway mark of the Rio Games, let’s enjoy the fantastic feats of our Olympians and continue to bathe in the good feelings that international competition on a level playing field can generate.
Let’s remember this time and the good feelings and try to pay it forward as our focus shifts to the sobering realities of everyday life. That would truly be a gift outcome of the 2016 Rio Olympics — a world left a little better by nations united in a common goal.
