Me First!

Thinking today about the Olympics and the US's demand of its athletes to finish first. We are gold medal crazy, aren't we?! It saddens me every Olympics to see the hype about gold medals and finishing first - rather than enjoying the competition and hoping that the better person/team wins. The interviews and the personal vignettes are at times so maudlin as to be a farce. This demeans the athletes, their families and support systems, the sport they compete in, their competitors and ultimately the games themselves. Games are to be played for the enjoyment, not for the competition and the winning. I know, I know...it's old fashioned to think this way and a bit naive. If we go back to the Olympic motto and rationale for holding the games in the first place, it was all about the training, preparation and performance. It was never supposed to be about country pride or anything beyond an individual's level. It's now been blown up into the identity of a people. Wow, it's enough pressure to just work hard and long enough to be an Olympian. What does it do to the athlete to have to believe that they carry the expectation of a nation as well?! When we don't have a good and healthy self-concept, we will fill that void with anything. What does it say about oour national self-concept that we put so much into how many medals our athletes get (and how many gold medals)? G-d exists for us to live full lives - to know that life itself is enough. When we don't honor that need to find G-d, we will fill our emptiness with idols - in this case the idol of winning. The thing about idols is they're never satisfied...the thing about G-d is that G-d is always enough. Somehting to consider as you watch and cheer. Peace for the journey, Dan