ONE FAMILY

I have to confess that I am not as fanatical as I was in my younger days when it comes to watching the competition of the Olympic Games. However, Kathleen and I do make a point of watching the spectacle of the Opening Ceremonies. I suspect that during my television lifetime I have seen in black and white, living color and now in high definition maybe 30 of these presentations.

We all have to marvel at how technology has not only improved the viewing of these events in our living rooms, but has also multiplied the marvelousness of the pageant. The structure in Sochi where the opening ceremony for the winter games was presented this year may go down as the most elaborate stage ever built. I have no idea how this venue will translate into other uses, but it was an artistic, technical and engineering marvel for this one evening of entertainment.

As the performers retreated to back stage and the actual opening of the games took place my mind rapidly shifted, having been reminded by the President of the Olympics Games once again telling the world that the youth of the world had gathered in the universal spirit of the oneness of humanity.

The flame of the torch had barely lighted the night and the fireworks had not yet exploded their last brilliant glow when the chants of nationalism started to fill the void left by the spent arsenal.

Around the world the medal countdown went into full gear, becoming a symbol of the superiority of the nations who were garnering the most gold, silver and bronze.

Fashion magazines raced their presses to finish first in critiquing the uniforms of the participants.

Political propaganda pundits immediately published their praises and criticisms of the nation which had made this unifying gathering possible.

The spectacle of the athletes marching into the stadium in their national colored uniforms waving the flags of their homeland had barely passed before us when our minds shifted to the hundreds of thousands of their peers who wore other uniforms back home. Not uniforms meant for skiing or skating, but uniforms which were meant for a far more deadly contest.

Although I applaud and am grateful that we can be reminded every two years that we are one people, it doesn't seem that these gatherings have changed the unity of mankind much since the days when the Spartans and the Athenians gathered for similar reasons.

This year for Christmas Kathleen bought me a calendar which has a daily bit of wisdom from the Dalai Lama. His entry for the 7th day of February went; “One of the most powerful visions I have experienced was the first photograph of the Earth from outer space. The image of a blue planet floating in deep space, glowing like a full moon on a clear night, brought powerfully home to me the recognition that we are indeed all members of a single family sharing one little house.”

Although there are many virtues we should be anxiously striving to put on and many vices we should be constantly striving to put off, I suspect no change in our nature will be more important to our eternal existence than how much we accept and act upon a belief that we are all of one family.

Although we are commonly limited in our ability to change the prejudices and divisive influences which fight against the dream of the universal oneness of mankind; we can all attempt to more constantly lift our brother, love our neighbor and decry the forces which would divide us.

(To be continued)