Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies." Colloquial
A part of me had already sworn off end-to-end Olympics viewing this month. We have work to do. A sales-driven business isn't helped by a lot of television distractions, and I've just reallocated one hour per week to the new season of Mad Men as it is. College football will be here soon (YES!!), so I almost feel like I need to stay off the tube now to justify the weekly Saturday gorgings later. Sort of like starving yourself for a day in advance of an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Of course, as I write this, the Damages Season One Marathon is airing on FX. I've already seen those episodes from last year three or four times each, but I like it for background noise better than beach volleyball in Beijing.
I have steared clear of religion and politics in this blog so far, and I don't intend to really break from that now. But, I am challenged to know what to do with last night's overdose of mesmerizing pagentry, that I tried to watch dispassionately from the comfort of my capitalist family room.
My first observation is that, in the age of Internet and 24-hour cable news and sports programming, it is now -- officially -- pure insanity for a network to presume they can package the Opening Ceremonies for prime-time viewing and justify it as a good business decision. From the moment the event began 14 hours ahead of me in Denver, the jaw-dropping information and brilliant photos began appearing on my browser front page. By the time 6:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time rolled around, Meredith and I had nearly been whipped to a frenzy in anticipation.
I had studied the Yahoo "Five Things You Gotta See" post. So, when the audio suddenly dropped out as the Chinese flag was raised and their national anthem began, you would have thought that someone had slapped me directly across the face. I was livid. The loss of audio was almost surpassed by the black screen on our local NBC affiliate's HD channel, forcing us to go to the "regular" channel to even see what was happening.
Every other channel and non-NBC HD setting had both audio and video. So, it was clearly all the fault of NBC. I was quick to blame the NBC New York feed and rapidly advanced to global warming. Even though I don't generally refer to global warming except to make a joke. One of Meredith's friends thought that the United States government must be censoring our viewership. I would have been more outraged at this high school senior's profound lack of understanding about all things sports programming-related had I not still been fuming about missing any part of this extravaganza.
A clear thinker would have discerned that electrical storm activity in the metro area, and it's companion torrential rain that closed a portion of I-25, might be responsible for this intrusion of silence. Of course, in Highlands Ranch, we got not a drop to drink. So, this invisible villain went unidentified for what felt like a millenium. After about five minutes, we got a 1970's-era Chyron label that read "Technical Difficulties."
Ya think??
Several more minutes later, the explanation about the problems being all local in nature and -- by implication -- nothing to do with politics, finally appeared. We got the HD signal somewhere during the Athletes Procession - we don't know when, because we didn't bother to keep checking it.
I'm sure that a bunch of journalists and media pundits around the globe will dissect and resection the motives and meanings of this Opening Ceremonies for a very long time. But, I frankly do not care. I quickly realized that, for me, the only way to think about what I saw and heard was to simply appreciate it for the accomplishment. Commentators rapidly lost touch with unique superlatives. The one I keep repeating is "staggering."
I know - and have participated in -- the banter about political philosophy, environment issues, human rights violations, and all the rest. But, no one knows what will happen on Earth in the years to come. And, I am certain that some of the kindest, most intelligent and most formidable hard workers I have ever encountered in my life have been from China. Living in California for a total of 29 years of that life -- in both of the two major metropolitan centers of the state -- it has been my privilege to know and work with these extraordinary humans. I didn't need to be reminded that the population of China represents one-fifth of humanity on Earth. But, I probably did need to understand and consider how much these Games mean to all of those people.
I acknowledge, but don't care about, all the money, extraordinary architectural achievements and blatant or inadvertent messages in yesterday's show. I don't care what kind of "statement" detractors may interpret and take away from the event. I don't care about the medals race.
What I do care about, and will remember for a very long time, is the emotion I felt when Yao Ming -- literally and figuratively larger-than-life -- escorted tiny Lin Hao, the earthquake survivor, around the stadium oval. When the little boy was quoted of his heroism among his classmates in the rescue that it was "his job." That he was their leader, their hall monitor. That it was his responsibility to do it. When I heard that 20 of his 30 classmates died. When I thought about the parents living under the one-child rule who lost that one child in that one moment.
When Yao held him high so he could see the Olympic flag being raised. When they oohed and aahed amid their diminishing age gap, while Li Ning made his eye-popping "run" around the Bird's Nest beautiful, symbolic scroll with the flame. When Yao said that he had waited his entire life for this moment. When he added that he had almost cried at this sight.
When I cried enough for him, too.
Highlights of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony:
Indelible image of Yao Ming & Lin Hao during The Lighting of the Beijing Olympic Cauldron:
1 comment:
Oh, Cynthia, I wish you had the ear of the powerful in Washington, and could help them take of their blinkers! None of us in the west can afford to stand in judgement on a culture as different as China (or the oriental cultures generally) As the native Indians in America say, you must walk a mile in another man's moccasins before you can judge him, and most of us aren't even willing to try them on. As you say, there's plenty of human rights problems etc, but we really don't understand the context in which they exist well enough to make valid judgements. My experience of chinese people has also been inspiring - my best friend at school was chinese and opened my eyes to so much.
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