Olympic Anxiety

So you are going to hold a big event. Perhaps a birthday party. A sweet sixteen (do girls still have them?). A Quinceanera (big in Southern California). A coming out debutante ball (nah, most of us have nothing to do with that one). A wedding. A big anniversary date. The point is, whatever the big occasion is going to be, you want everything to run smoothly.

All of us know what it is like to pencil in a date on the calendar for that special moment. Once locked in, there's no turning back. Depending on the time of year, weather could be a problem. What about an important relative or friend that everyone knows that might have a car accident, fall ill, or even die just on the eve of the party. Definitely not something you can control and definitely something that could put a real damper upon the festivities.

Therefore all of us can agree that planning out an important party has incredible risk. You hold your breadth at times, you pray, you cross your fingers, and do whatever you can to turn back the anxiety of something catastrophic ruining the upcoming occasion. For most people, thousands of dollars might be put up to reserve a hall or church, order food and flowers, purchase special clothing, and on the list goes.

But what if your party spending was not in the thousands, not in the millions, but in the billions. What if your event was going to be held in various locales that were both indoor and outdoor. What if your guests were coming from hundreds of far away places and carried with them feelings of friendship and hostility towards both you the host and the other gathering guests.

Well, if your party met most of the criteria just mentioned in the last paragraph, you might be playing host to that once every four year mega-event: the Summer Olympics. And if you were the host of this year's superbash, you would be feeling the nervousness of the host country: China.

Chinese officials have enough problems on their hands that they must have spent inordinate amounts of time checking their lucky numbers and the celestial skies to be sure that nothing else would intrude on their big moment. Intense Beijing smog, dope filled athletes, and international ticketing scams were some of the problems that the host Olympic Committee knew needed to be addressed.

But beyond local weather and Olympic associated problems, all the Chinese can do is pray that nothing too large or too negative would take peoples' minds off of this year's Olympic slogan of One World - One Dream. C'mon, for a lousy seventeen days, couldn't most of the world kind of get along and let bygones be bygones and plow their swords into the earth and at least do a make believe embrace. Billions have been invested and billions are watching.

So can we empathize with the Chinese? Here they have just finished the fantastic opening ceremonies with a cast of thousands of highly trained enthusaiastic acrobats, musicians, young people, and myriad others. The fireworks were set off, and before the last of the smoke dissipated, fireworks of another type were being sent off in an out of nowhere war between Russia and Georgia for some unknown province now known to everyone as South Ossetia. And to make things even worse, a country called to the carpet for overdoing security, is being asked why more security was not employed when two innocent Americans were knifed (one fatally) by a crazed Chinese citizen who then threw himself to his own death.

A Bird's Nest. An aquarmarine swimming hall. Death defying gymnasts and divers. An amazing American basketball team. A young man named Michael Phelps on a gold mission. These were the things that the Chinese wanted to showcase to the world during this short season of international sport. But on a planet filled with greed and suspicion, not even one day (let alone seveneteen) could be free from the usual mayhem. Unfortunately, the slogan chosen by the Chinese has become all too true - One world living in harmony is indeed a dream. A dream that is just that.