August 14, 2024
Ah me, the Olympics are over!
What a spectacle! What an amazing diversion from the banal and the mundane.
That was a fast sixteen days, wasn’t it? And yes, I know that in a few months
(or at my rate of slipping mental retention a few hours) more, most of us won’t
recall too many moments that we watched. We won’t recall the details of what we
witnessed over that last sixteen days very well at all.
But what we may never forget
are the emotions that stirred within us as that quadrennial performance
unfolded. For most of us there will be, in future years, perhaps only one or
two moments from those sixteen days that stand out and live on in our memories.
I know that for me, that one moment occurred during the opening ceremony. After
the cauldron had been lit and the camera panned to the Eiffel Tower, and I
heard Celine Dion’s voice once more. I’ll forever have to look up the name of
the song she sang. But I’ll forever remember the tearful moment when I realized
that she was singing!
Those thoughts—as my thoughts
often do—led me to another. I’m reminded of that popular expression, “you’ll remember
how a person made you feel longer than you’ll remember anything they ever said.”
I used to wonder about how
that saying could be so reflective of reality when it was, in fact, an argument
for the value of emotions over facts. Feelings, if you will, over truth. And
while choosing the emotional over the logical holds some appeal, when stated
just that way, it also presents itself as a heartbreakingly anti-human
statement.
Think about it for just a
moment. We strive to be better and to do better. We seek the truth and hold
that difficult to define essence as our modern-day Holy Grail. And yet what we
continue to insist defines us as a species is our ability to form emotional
connections. Our ability to feel, to emote, and yes, to react on that basis,
alone.
We continue to be living,
breathing creatures of paradox. We continue to believe that our lives are
destined to be the continuation of the ages-long eternal battle of the
emotional versus the logical.
But what if that framing of
the situation, of the struggle, is all wrong?
What if it’s not a battle
between those two qualities, but a struggle to somehow combine, to meld the
two into a perfect—or more perfect—union of the two within us. What if the entire
idea of this game of life is to find a way to give each part of what makes us
who we are its own stage upon which to perform? Its own spotlight under which
to shine?
How do we make everything fit,
exactly? And if we are each of us unique individuals, then I have to believe
that the perfect mix of the two within each person is unique as well. It’s not
so much a question of what is right, in the ultimate sense. It’s more a
question of what is right for each of us.
I don’t have all the answers,
and I probably don’t have all the questions, either. But I do know this.
Over the course of my lifetime,
I’ve felt the path that we’re on, as a species, is not so much a straight line
as a slow-moving arc, like a pendulum. And
over the last years, we have been bombarded by the dark, the hard, and the
frightening. We have been forced to curb our natural tendencies and pare back
our very existence to ensure that we can cover the barest of necessities.
And now, finally, we are on
the upward swing of our arc once more. Can you feel it? It’s right there,
waiting for you to grab it.
The time has come for optimism
and celebration. We have faced our share of demons for now. Of course they will
return. That’s just how it is. But for now, it’s time for us to exert our control,
and welcome back the angels.
It’s time for the choir to
sing!
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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