Olympic Observations

I know I haven't posted to my blog in a while. I've been going through an adjustment period to my daughter's new five day a week gymnastics schedule at a new gym that's about an hour and a half drive away. She loves it. I think that the new schedule and new coaching are worthwhile, but something in me has been reacting with anxiety to the more intense schedule. I thoroughly enjoyed today's day off where I didn't have to leave the house once.

I remember that today is Saturday; and it's world and local news day. The Winter Olympics get my vote for the story of the week. I've managed to watch some of the night coverage and read up on the major events in the newspaper.

I love the theme for this Olympics: Passion. It's an emotion that sums up something that is lacking in our culture.

The only night I managed to stay up until the end of the programming was the night of the Ice Skating finals. I wanted to see Sasha Cohen skate and find out who won the gold. (Actually Aimee came in and blurted out that Sasha won the silver, so there went the suspense.) I was rooting for Sasha, and not happy to see her fall twice. In spite of the two falls, I thought that the rest of her skating routine was the most beautiful skating I have ever seen.

I also caught the women's snowboarding cross finals, the one where Lindsey Jacobellis of the U.S. had a commanding lead and decided to celebrate and show off a little before she reached the finish line. It wasn't a good idea. In fact it was such a bad idea that it cost her the gold medal. She had to settle for the silver.

I was also impressed by the story about the Turkish skater whose parents gave up their comfortable life in Turkey and moved to Canada so their daughter could get the training she needed to excel. There are only two skating rinks in all of Turkey. She was competing as Turkey's first Olympic Ice Skater. It makes my driving Aimee to gymnastics across town pale in comparison.

So here are some lessons learned from this year's Winter Olympics:

1. Stir up the passion, don't allow apathy or numbness to steal the zeal or fire from my heart. The Bible says: Stir up the gift God within, paraphrase: live passionately, go for the gold in life, don't settle for less.

2. It's not over till it's over. That goes both ways, whether it looks like a win or a loss, don't quit competing until the finish line is crossed.

3. It takes sacrifice to be a champion.

4. We really need to get TiVo.