There was a good reason for the sweat on Wayne Gretzky's upper lip and for the wider-than-wide "what the fuck is going on" shit-eating grin on Steve Nash's face as they stood in the center of the indoor Olympic stadium waiting for the Olympic Cauldron to rise from the stadium floor. Ahem, I said, "To rise from the stadium floor!" Um...is something wrong?
When three giant pillars that resembled ice shards emerged from the floor, with the main cauldron itself rising in the center, it became readily apparent that the fourth pillar had malfunctioned and was not going to be making an appearance. Nope, there was no hiding this kind of snafu. I'm sure the creative director responsible for this spectacle was furiously pushing buttons and pulling levers behind the scenes, and, after changing his pants, slowly resigned himself to the fact that things were not going to go as planned and just said, "Fuck it."
Hey, the way I look at it, you have to give these folks a pass. The opening ceremonies were stunning and classy, complete with some truly poignant moments, like when there was a minute of silence for the Georgian luge slider who was killed when he had lost control of his sled during a test run and was hurled into the railing at 95 miles an hour. You could have heard a pin drop in that stadium of 60,000 people as the Canadian and Olympic flags were lowered to half-mast in honor of the fallen athlete.
So what if one of the pillars didn't work? If anything, I feel that the fallen pillar was a fitting, albeit unintentional symbol for the fallen Georgian athlete. Also, I think that the malfunction and the death of the Georgian athlete prove that things do not always go as planned, and that sometimes you have to just carry on with things as they are, because that's as good as it's going to get at the moment. In that spirit, the assembled torchbearers gathered together to light the Olympic Cauldron in unison, even though it was not in its fully-intended form. Also in the spirit of carrying on in the face of adversity, the remaining Georgian athletes, who had considered going home after their shocking tragedy, collectively decided to compete in this year's games to honor not only their fallen comrade, but also the Olympic spirit.
Kudos to the people of Canada and the world for a great opening ceremony. I can only hope that this mix of mishaps and moments of near-perfection will remind all of us that we all are imperfect, but in recognizing this reality, we can still strive to be the best we can be in all that we do in life. GO OLYMPICS!!!
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