Like many other families the world over, we've been trying to watch a bit of Olympic competition each day. Bess especially likes the figure skating, of course, but she also likes the luge a lot - even she realizes the insanity of putting on a helmet and some spandex and riding a sled down a mountain at 90 mph. She likes speed skating too, though she insists that the speed skaters are simply figure skaters who are trying to catch up with their partners. As for me, I like snowboarding the best, and I am also having fun reminiscing about last year's trip to Vancouver.
As much as we are enjoying it, I can't help but wonder - how is it that we can pull off the Olympics every couple of years, but we can't feed hungry people, or make sure everyone has clean water to drink and adequate sanitation and medical care? I mean, honestly. Between deciding on a host city and all that goes along with that, to building the venues and ensuring adequate infrastructure in the city, to selecting athletes and getting them there, to televising the events, not to mention the money...if we put half as much effort into solving the world's problems as we do putting sports entertainment on television, if the creative minds and leaders and investors who are able to put these huge events together turned their energies toward human trafficking or global warming, I have to believe these problems would be well on their way to solutions.
This is not to take anything away from the athletes' accomplishments. I've always been very impressed with and fascinated by people who are able to push themselves to the limit, and I know they invest a lot of themselves in their sports. Go team!
But leave it to me to take the fun out of sport, I guess...
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