The HEA Cafe

Ever since Mom and Dad made me watch Nadia Comaneci score her perfect 10s in Montreal in ’76, I’ve been hooked on the Olympics Games, and as Opening Day approaches, I find myself planning my life around the events.  This means finding a way to get a TV into the campground next week so I don’t miss anything. 

In the back of my mind is a little voice that keeps reminding me of the negative aspects to the Games.  The judging that hasn’t always been on the up-and-up, the athletes who find new and untested ways to chemically enhance their abilities, and of course the stories surrounding the host city and country itself.

And yet the Pollyanna in me keeps trying to muffle that voice because this is the part of me that wants to see the athletes do their thing.  This is the part of me that wants to believe each and every one of those athletes made it to the Games on sheer determination, dedication and God-given talent.  This is the part of me that wants to get teary every time the gold medal winner (whomever he or she may be) gets to stand on that podium and have his national anthem played.  What a feeling that must be!

If you’ve never seen the movie “The Cutting Edge” with DB Sweeney and Moira Kelly, I recommend you rent it.  It’s about a washed up hockey player and a prima donna figure skater who end up as pairs partners in the Olympics and of course fall in love along the way.  But the road to the Games (and each other’s hearts) is not an easy one.  You’ll laugh out loud at what a b*tch she is to him, and you’ll physically cringe when you see what she goes through to get one particular move perfected. 

It’s all about dedication, and dedication is what brings us together here at RWA.   We all want to write, and we all want to write well.   Can we all be Nadia Comaneci, Catriona Le May Doan or Michael Phelps? 

No, of course not.  Some of us (ahem) aren’t that flexible, coordinated or aquatically inclined, but that doesn’t mean we give up.  It simply means we find our own sport, our own genre, and we keep going.  Just like the athletes who train hour after hour, day after day, so must we.  Even when we feel like crap and we just don’t want to do it. . .we do it.  

Because we want to be on that podium one day and we want that gold medal (or RITA as the case may be)    

But just like the Olympic athletes, we’re not going to get anywhere by simply wanting it.  We need to go after it with both hands.  The Olympic Games are the perfect time to find new inspiration, new determination and new respect for all those who continue to push themselves every day in whatever field they are in.

So chalk up people – the uneven bars are waiting!!