The Olympic Spirit

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The Olympic Spirit

    Jean Hammond:  The Winter Olympic Games of 2010 are about to begin, and it is estimated that at least two billion people will be viewing the events and attendant ceremonies. While exercising I have been listening to a CD titled “Summon the Heroes,” on which The Boston Pops Orchestra showcases music written for specific Olympics throughout the years.

    As some of my friends will tell you, I’m not exactly the "athletic type" and seeing me try to seriously engage in a sport is not a sight you would relish viewing—unless, of course, it is croquet on a very level lawn, with a gentle summer breeze blowing and lemonade and cucumber sandwiches at the end of the grueling course! However, the character and energy of this specialized music has the effect of firing me to gradually increase the speed of the treadmill. And before I know it, I’m energized from another level and find myself flying along at what for me is a ripping pace, to the power of such pieces as Ode to Zeus by Mikis Theodorakis—commissioned by the International Olympic Committee for the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Summon the Heroes by John Williams—written for the Games in Atlanta in 1996, Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams—written for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich—theme of the 1980 Games in Moscow, The Olympic Spirit by John Williams—written for NBC in celebration of the 1988 Games in Seoul, and Olympic Hymn by Leonard Bernstein—written for the 1981 International Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden.

    John Williams speaks of the mythological inspiration the Olympics have brought him and says, "You don’t write the same kind of piece that you’re going to play for an audience of 1,000 as you’re going to play out on the esplanade for an audience of 250,000. You can still have a lot of notes; it [the large-scale work] doesn’t have to be simple, but it seems to me that the line has to be like a big arc."

    I love the spirit of "the big arc" that permeates Olympics-inspired music. The line of each piece as it arcs out focuses a unique aspect of the Olympic spirit that can be felt and understood worldwide. Some pieces embody the atmosphere of spectacle-trumpets blaze forth unabashedly, heralding great things to come! And others carry a more overt spirituality and are prayerful in tone in a grand way, such as Leonard Bernstein’s Olympic Hymn.

    I was interested in this comment by Alex Ross in The New Yorker: "Neuroscientists have analyzed the phenomenon of the ‘musical chill’-the ambiguous tremor of otherness that runs through the body when, for whatever reason, a particular sound overwhelms the reasoning mind." The usefulness of Olympics music is its ability to create spine-chilling experiences for the masses that momentarily overwhelm human nature, reminding the world’s listeners of the immensity of the true human spirit, and of something higher-perhaps going back to the spiritual aspect of the original games-that of honoring the gods, focused in Zeus.

    The original Greek festival that began in 776 BC included athletic, literary and musical competitions. The upcoming Games include what is being called The Cultural Olympiad—not competitions, but a large array of events from rock concerts to art shows being brought in as entertainment options. Back in 776 BC there were many Greek colonies, often at war with each other. Organizers of the Games in those ancient days declared a truce throughout the colonies for a month. No matter who was at war with who, war had to stop so that athletes and performers from all the colonies could travel safely through assorted city- states to get to the Games. Modern-day Olympics have seen forms of truce, such as the allowance of China’s first full-scale participation in 1984, and countries that are embittered towards each other or are at war, are represented by their athletes sometimes competing side by side.

    The fact that the original Games in Greece included literary and musical competitions causes me to think of different kinds of athleticism. All require physical, mental and emotional stamina to varying degrees, but there are people who are dominantly athletes at the mental or emotional levels-parents who care for a special needs child for years, an attunement server who can sit a hold a pattern for hours, those who travel the world for humanitarian causes, the perseverance of wounded veterans in rehabilitation, the stamina of opera singers, entrepreneurs with expansive ideas, inventors that think out-of-the-box, an imprisoned person like Nelson Mandela (depicted in the current film Invictus) who didn’t go insane and was able to forgive.

    The central element common to all kinds of athletes is discipline and focus-my favorite word. Behind every successful athlete of whatever kind, is a concentration of spiritual substance that is the result of discipline. Another common element is the attitude of “go for the gold,” which has tended to become associated with the spirit of competition. But in a broader way, the spirit of these four words reflects the movement of life through human capacities striving for the very best that is possible given the circumstances. And in every kind of athletic endeavor, "timing is everything" as it is said. While in the wintry scene of our garden and picking up fallen dried branches on our brown lawn today, I thought of how silly it would be to plant vegetables and flowers now and expect them to flourish. Many people mistime planting times in the cycles of their lives, or are not on hand to nurture growth or to see points of harvest when they appear.

    Following the main Olympics is the international Paralympic Winter Games Competition. The inspiring list of competitions includes visually impaired downhill alpine skiing and wheelchair curling. Two teenagers, champion wrestlers and best friends, Nikko Landeros and Tyler Carron from Berthhoud, Colorado (nearby us here) were in an accident two years ago, in which they both lost both their legs. Local newspaper coverage has continued to track their recovery and remarkable determination to live full lives. They said, “Once an athlete, always an athlete,” and have taken up sled hockey. Nikko, now 20, made the U.S. squad and will compete in the upcoming Paralympics. He is presently in Buffalo, N.Y. to train with his teammates. And it is felt that Tyler has the talent to make the squad for the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia. An Olympian is defined as: a person of great attainment. Nikko and Tyler have joined those ranks.

    Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games 100 years ago said, "Sport must be seen as producing beauty and as an opportunity for beauty. It provides beauty because it creates the athlete, who is a living sculpture. It is an opportunity for beauty through the architecture, the spectacles, and the celebrations which it brings about." And one of his biographers said that the Baron felt that sport possessed the power to benefit humankind and encourage peace among the nations of the world.

    Some wonder if the Olympics are still valid, given the large security systems needed because of terrorist threats in our world now and other enormous financial outlays, scandals related to the surreptitious use of performance-enhancing drugs, the array of political maneuvers behind the scenes, overt commercialism, and some feel the Olympics are elitist because often fine athletes in poor socio-economic circumstances or countries can’t afford to compete. However, beyond these elements and the sometimes circus-like atmosphere, the original intent is still vibrationally present to be felt by participants and onlookers, and this century later we can agree with Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s sentiments.

    As we hear the roar of the crowd and the stirring music of trumpets heralding the Games, view the spectacle of Opening Ceremonies as flag bearers for each country enter the stadium and the torch lit, and are perhaps moved in the Closing Ceremonies to see all the participants mixed together as one tide of humanity, we may use all of it to consciously be with our Body. In addition to the sound of Olympics music arcing out in grand sweeping lines, our radiation may arc out into the world through this event. of Fire:

    Here is a verse from the poem Jerusalem by William Blake, featured in the film Chariots of Fire:

"Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
  Bring me my Arrows of desire:
  Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
  Bring me my Chariot of fire."

These words have had many interpretations. In the context of this writing I would like to take the liberty of seeing them as the prayer of a Being to the Creator before the physicality of incarnating into this now fallen world. Having agreed to incarnate, perhaps in essence we all said something akin to this before coming:

"Bring me my Bow of burning gold"
        - Bring me the tools I need, that I may let them burn brightly with use....
  "Bring me my Arrows of desire"
        - Bring me the will to succeed, and the desire for continuing union with Thee
          in the fulfillment of my commission....
  "Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!"
        - Bring me my specific purpose as I descend into the clouds of the human
          condition....
  "Bring me my Chariot of fire."
        - Bring me the physical body I need on earth for Thy work.

    There must be deep feeling about our individual incarnation.

    Whatever we may think about how we got here now, we didn’t arrive casually.

    When on Earth in what was then the Garden, ordained "to dress it and to keep it," our physical forms were very different. Who knows what they were like when we really did skip upon the mountains and leap upon the hills! In the aging process now, there is growing awareness that physical skipping and leaping in this fallen state is not as easy as it used to be! Be that as it may, we are here and have been sent to live Olympian lives.

    There is an athlete called a pacesetter, defined as: a runner or competitor who sets the pace at the beginning of a race or competition, sometimes in order to help another runner break a record. The work of Spirit could be likened to the role of a pacesetter. Spirit is always moving in different ways throughout the pack of humanity, keeping momentum going so that leadership is given a chance to emerge through response to that Spirit. Consciously identified in Spirit, we are those pacesetters. We are also the runners who are out to excel. We are rightly both kinds of athletes rolled into one!

    If I could be a recognizable athlete at the physical level, I would aspire to be a pacesetter for long-distance runners. It would also be marvelous to be an archer! For all of us, in this lifetime we must stay the course and let correct pacing of spiritual expression infuse this incarnation, so that our lives hit the bull’s eye vibrationally-speaking in every moment, opening the way for others to go for the gold.

    As we shortly see magnificent athletes accomplishing feats that seem to go beyond what the human form is technically able to do—skiers hurtling down slopes at breakneck speeds, figure skaters twirling, paralympic athletes transcending physical limitations—we may give thanks for the evidence of remaining power in the human physical form. We may pause in gratefulness for our individual chariots of fire through which we serve, and lift our own hymn of thanks to our Creator who continually brings us all that we need for the success of our individual incarnation.

    Our continuing steadiness can help to provide what is needed for the optimum physical safety of the Games—and we may celebrate the spirit of athleticism at every level and in all its forms, knowing that there is much more to be revealed through us, and the whole Body!