the 2008 summer olympics are just over a week away, and as always i  
can't wait. normally, i would never watch sporting events on  
television. the olympics are different. if i so much as start to think  
about the opening and closing ceremonies i feel a rush of emotion.

this morning i got to thinking about exactly why i'm so involved with  
the olympic games. i can't remember a time when i wasn't. in fact, i  
remember very clearly when they decided to stagger them every two  
years alternating winter and summer. i was ecstatic, no more waiting  
for four years for that flame to light up again.

it's not as if the olympics haven't been rife with difficulties, both  
historical and modern. women were not allowed to compete at all until  
paris in 1900. several countries boycotted the games in the mid 50's  
for political reasons, as did many african countries in the 70's.

in 1976 china was banned from the games, and most of us recall the  
cold war boycotts of the 80s resulting in a medal rush for us  
gymnastics and spin off "friendship games." i wasn't the only little  
girl obsessed with gymnastics after los angeles 1984.

sometimes the political strife becomes downright violent, most  
infamously in 1972 with the munich massacre of nine israeli athletes  
and a police officer. the incident i recall most clearly is the  
bombing in atlanta in 1996. i was vacationing at the beach with a  
friend, and we were up late goofing around. she turned on the  
television to a scene of police tape and flashing emergency lights. my  
heart sank.

i admit i have mixed feelings about the games in china this year.  
their human rights record is sorely lacking to say the least, they're  
already breaking promises made to journalists and blocking web sites.  
the more i think about it, though, the more i feel it wouldn't be fair  
to take the games away from the people of china. i know i certainly  
wouldn't want to be judged by my county's current leadership.

as i prepare the box of tissues for the inevitable few happy tears i  
shed every time they light the torch, i feel i've found at least part  
of the reason they affect me so. the olympics represent an ideal, not  
just an ideal athlete, but an ideal world. countries set aside their  
differences, agree to play by one fair set of rules, and unite with a  
benevolent collective spirit while maintaining their national pride.  
it's a snapshot of the beautiful and peaceful potential of humanity.

this is why the closing ceremonies, for me, are so incredibly  
bittersweet. when they extinguish the flame the temporary window into  
that ideal potential existence closes. at once, the reality of the  
world feels all the more chaotic, selfish and violent in the  
subsequent darkness.

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