Dear Editor,
With the games having come to a close, I cannot bite my tongue any longer.
For the past two weeks, I have been constantly bombarded by articles about how the United States has choked and how the Winter Olympics is boring with its lackluster events and athletes we have never heard of.
Have we forgotten about the spirit of the games and the wonder of the spectacle?
That spirit lies within the hearts of all the athletes up on those podiums hearing the anthems of their nations.
That song, our national anthem, is the reason we are proud to display the stars and stripes. Maybe it's blasphemous to say, but it's just a song, right?
When it comes to everyday viewing habits, we treat it as an annoyance, rather than an anthem to be respected. But when the lights go on every four years, we take it very seriously - or perhaps, more to the point, "it" takes us.
What is it about this song that makes grown men cry - women too? Athletes who spent most of their lives in total control are sent wildly careening from emotional pole to pole in just two minutes' time. And for what? A song many don't even know the words to. But of course, it's not about the words; it's the feeling.
Why else would famous people with lots of money do this? They come to stand on the platform and hear the song - the one that vaporizes cynicism. The one that brings those who spent the life of isolated existence of a sporting celebrity to the same place as the rest of us. Sometimes they cry when they hear their anthems; sometimes they cry when they don't.
It has been the canvas on which some have chosen to display their politics - but more often their joy. Ask them, and they will tell you they never saw it coming. They were prepared for the moment, and then it simply overwhelmed them, swallowed them whole.
For so many, this is all about the moment, the culmination of all they worked for. Cross the line first and you win, stand on the platform, hear the song, and you are a champion.
Maybe it's a bit corny and almost impossible to explain, but it's undeniable. It's a song that is supposed to bridge the distance between races, religions and sexes.
It truly makes everyone feel like they are part of a team, even if they never met millions of their own teammates.
Damn if it doesn't work.
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