You can download a countdown clock to track any event you can imagine. Some use them to plan a wedding, some to await the arrival of a baby, somewell mein anticipation of the start of the Olympics.
My interest in the international event has spin-off benefits for my family. Christmas comes a few weeks before the Winter Games, while my birthday falls a few weeks before the Summer Games typically start. Result? Every two years I am the easiest person in the world to buy gifts for. My family heads to the official supplier of Olympic wear and I am outfitted with jerseys, sweats, scarves or mitts in time to take up my prime viewing position. The other benefit? Less laundry. Seriously. The moment I arrive home from work I get into my Olympic gear so I am ready to cheer on Team Canada. During the run of the Games those clothes don't see the laundry room. I can't risk the interruption to my viewing wardrobe.
It got difficult four years ago. There were so many Canadian medal winnersso many moments of exuberant cheering andso many spills on my clothing. On the last day of the Vancouver Olympics I looked at my Team Canada sweater. Could I get one more day out of it? I had to. The men's hockey team was going for gold. I wore the sweaterSidney Crosby scored the overtime goal. Ah, magical moment. So this week my Team Canada outfit will be taken out of my closet where it has been waiting since Christmas morning.Athletes themselves seem to get pretty excited about putting on their national colours. Following the Canadian women's victory in curling in Nagano I had the opportunity to hear skip Sandra Schmirler talk about her Olympic experience. She spoke of the pride she had in putting on the Olympic outfit knowing her curling team was now part of this bigger collective known as Team Canada. As she made her way through the athletes' village she was so proud to see who she was connected to--other athletes in other disciplines--who she had never met but also belonged to Team Canada.
Belonging is good. A sense of connection is so important to our well-being. We need people to belong to, to share experiences with, and to help us make a way in the world around us. But we need to carefully consider who we are seeking to belong to, and what it requires of us to say we belong. How many young people have done potentially harmful things because that was the price of admission into a group that they desperately hoped would fill that sense of a need to belong? Sadly, time and maturity don't make us immune from following in these paths. How many adults have set aside their beliefs and principles to go along with what is popular or easy? The need to belong can cause us to turn away from what we know is good, right and true so as not to alienate ourselves from those whose opinions we value more than our principles.
Acceptance, in some circles, hinges on submission rather than uniqueness. Those who are different, or believe differently, are told to change. If they won't make the demanded change then labels are attached to explain them. But, take a moment and think back on your experiences and the people who have crossed your path in life. Likely some of the most remarkable and memorable people were the ones unwilling to listen to the noise of the world and refused to acquiesce to what was culturally trendy or socially crowd-pleasing.
An Olympic team dressed in uniforms can denote a national identity but within that group are examples of glorious individuality, goals, personality and dreams. The athletes know they belong, whether they finish on the podium, or place no where near where they had hoped. We, like them, are on the right track when we can bring the best of ourselves to the group while knowing we will be supported when our weaknesses, failures and mistakes inevitably become evident. We will know we truly belong when our connections tie us to each other in community and free us to be ourselves, all at the same time.
The Games may be underway, but our sense of where we desire to belong is nothing to play around with. The thrillsand spillsexperienced with the jersey draw us in and establish bonds. The individuals inside the jersey make the group one you want to belong to. It may not rank up there with an Olympic motto but imagine if we all embraced the saying, "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken." That's my outlook.
