Back to the Bird's Nest

The Twenty-Fourth Winter Olympics began tonight in Beijing, and it was amazing to see all our focus once more back at the Bird's Nest after fourteen years now.  Mom and I were actually there in July of 2008, and we got to see the Cube and the Bird's Nest in person, along with a few other Olympic sites in Beijing.  It's an impressive construction, and it's good to see it being used again and not going to waste as other Olympic stadiums occasionally do.  

As for the ceremonies themselves, they were visually amazing, as one would expect.  There was beautiful imagery and music, although we're quite tired of hearing the song "Imagine" at these things.  But the costuming was fantastic, and the visual technology was as jaw dropping as one would expect.  The children's songs were beautiful, and the fireworks were pretty amazing.  Snowflake shapes?  Olympic Rings?  Spelling out "SPRING?"  How'd they do that?

Still, there was too much going on in the world for commentators to resist.  First, there was the threat of conflict between the Ukraine and Russia.  Then, and oh, by the way, there's a pandemic.  By the time we were done with the event, the commentators did a great job reminding us that a world war is imminent.  And that may in fact be the case.  But it doesn't exactly go hand-in-hand with the snowflakes, children, and wondrous wintery landscapes and visuals.  I know announcers are tasked with reporting world events and telling us how we should think.  But perhaps we can talk about that later and just do what we came to do, and that's enjoy the artistry before us, and then later on discuss the politics of things.  

And then there was the frequent reminder of human rights issues, as if this is suddenly something the world has just taken notice of.  What?  Now we're supposed to pay attention?  So before all this time they were just fine with all that was going on?  Apparently this new group of persecuted people must be important, because the millions and millions of persecuted people before this weren't quite enough to pay attention to.  Oh, and then there's that little lab thing that destroyed economies and killed millions, but it's crazy talk to even think about bringing that one up.  

See?  I didn't want to talk about this.  Or hear about it.  The Olympics are supposed to be this safe space, which doesn't mean that all that other stuff in the world isn't going on.  Reality is what it is, and that's fine.  We know.  We're not stupid.  We watch because there's a camaraderie of athletes with shared love of different sports, ones that don't speak the same languages, but speak the language of sport.  It's an escape, and a seed planted of hope that perhaps people can get along in peace.  There are plenty of problems with the Olympic organization, of course.  But the core idea of harmony with one another doesn't seem to be that terrible of an idea.  Besides, I just don't want to think or talk about it.  We've got enough problems at present, okay?

So anyway, the next few weeks we'll be watching and cheering on the athletes, marveling at their individual stories and accomplishments.  I love the Olympics.  We were watching some snowboarding tonight, and there were some pretty thrilling moments, and of course there were heartbreaks already.  It was a great competition.  Here it is, day one, and we've already watched an entire curling match, an ice hockey game, and now the qualifications for a snowboarding run.  Great stuff!

The temperature is colder outside, quite cold.  I was layered up for the office work, because it's even cold inside there.  I did manage to finish this Sunday's script.  The Get a Clue cast will have a lot of fun on Sunday.  Tonight we had taekwondo, both leadership and black belt class.  Team Edge will be meeting soon enough, training for competition, so there were hints of that in the leadership class already. 

On the way home, we picked up a chicken rotisserie and had a nice big meal at the house, including mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and green peas too.  Mom already had the fire going in the fireplace too.  After watching some of the Games, I was reading for Maddie the next segment of "The Syndrome," where our friend in the book Mattie escapes from her captors rather handily.  But will the Keepers be safe?  We'll find out soon enough.

We said our prayers tonight, and got to bed a little later - I was watching snowboarding a while afterwards.  But we could stay up later, because tomorrow we can sleep in a bit later, right?