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Take Two Doses of The Olympics and Call Me in the Morning

By on August 6, 2012

Into the middle of a long summer of stifling heat, nauseating Washington politics, two public mass shootings, an irritating presidential campaign you wish was long over, dead fish floating down the Missouri River, the Penn State-Jerry Sandusky scandal and the overblown Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes domestic melodrama, comes the perfect antidote for what has been ailing this country: The London Olympics.

All ready, I feel better.

NBC bought the exclusive American rights expecting this to be a financial loser that might bind new viewers to their regular programming. It now seems it will break even or give NBC a profit. American viewers and sideline critics have been hard to please. They don’t like the technical glitches, the time delays, the ill-timed cut-aways, co-anchor Ryan Seacrest who has fared poorly, and some of the voice-over commentary which has been fairly lame. But, they are watching in record numbers. So much so that last week, the City of Los Angeles issued a warning to city workers that if they did not refrain from watching daytime events on their desk monitors, the whole computer system in the city of Los Angeles was headed for a crash. A thought to savor.

The opening ceremony started things off well. It did not attempt to compete with the technical brilliance of the Beijing Olympic opening, but instead aimed to express something uniquely British, which luckily meant humor, not traditionally a big element at most Olympics. Even the 86-year old Queen got into the spirit and participated in a video with Daniel Craig the current James Bond, seeming to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. The feckless Mitt Romney, apparently a man for no season,  blundered into the picture and ended up raising the patriotic ardor of those Brits in charge by seeming to criticize.

Whether it was watching Michael Phelps making Olympic History with 18 gold medals, or Andy Murray winning for the home crowd in tennis, or the archery or gymnastics or sculling or sprinters or badminton controversy, the Olympic competition has been as riveting as it is refreshing, reminding us all of what quality has been missing in American Life lately. Here was healthy physical competition, rather than endless verbal negativity. Here were different nationalities co-existing rather than right-wing xenophobia, immigrant-baiting and scantily cloaked racism. Here were individuals after years of training striving to do their best and wowing audiences with the outcome. You’ve gotta like it.

No wonder Americans love this spectacle. It is the best medicine for our current national malaise. This has been the tonic we all have needed. Now let’s hope the feelings we experienced this brief two weeks will not be forgotten when we get back to what passes as business-as-usual in this country in the months to follow. This has reminded us of what is really important  in the world: healthy competition, fulfilling one’s dreams, cooperation among diverse people and honest lasting achievement.

Tom Godfrey

About Tom Godfrey

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