We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Life - Let the Games Begin

We bid a brief adieu to Mr. Trump, to stock market jitters, to shutdowns and showdowns. We place matters large and small, private or public, on pause. Life, as we know it, will just have to wait. For now it is time for the Olympics.

If ever there was a moment when we longed to lose ourselves in a universe of heroes, of stories of courage and dedication, of pursuit of greatness, of triumphs and tragedies that share equal billing each compelling and engrossing, now, NOW, is it.

In a world that is seemingly often more fiction than fact, we need respite from the constant storm. For today we focus on the triple axel, on hurtling 90 miles per hour down the face of an impossibly steep mountain, on power plays that have nothing to do with politics.

Yes, we do tend towards our own, waving our flag and raising our voices for the red, white and blue. And maybe in this time when national pride has morphed into something far more sinister, there is a little, maybe more, tone deafness in our almost jingoistic zeal. But that is a topic for another day.

For today, we welcome with open arms and swelling pride those athletes who often toil in relative obscurity between these massive gatherings. For every Vonn or Shiffrin, there are myriad others whose names have never reached our lips or touched our consciousness. But tomorrow they will fill our hearts and they will be as our sons and daughters. 

These next two weeks will prove fascinating, as all Olympics are. They bring the best out in the best among us and we are grateful witness. And when it is done, when the gold, silver and bronze have been tallied and the athletes have taken leave of us, we will have concluded a wonderful and wondrous journey.

Maybe more than all else we will be thankful that our regularly scheduled program will have been placed on hold for a fortnight. Mr. Trump, tweet all you want. We are not paying attention.

Let the Games begin.