Over the past few weeks, I’ve been cooped up in my room in front of my laptop (*sigh*), watching the Olympic Winter games. For some reason, they were a big thing for me this year, despite me not really being a sports fan. I guess it had something to do with the fact that they were held in Canada.
One of my interests as a scholar is to try and unravel what certain things mean. I don’t mean “mean” in the sense of semantics and definitions, I mean “mean” in the sense of value-meanings that people interpret within a context. Kind of like what peanut butter and jelly mean to bread; the difference between what it is for a four year old and a 16 year old is remarkable.
I was thinking about it before in terms of books and literature, such as Milton’s epic poems, and the works of literature we have now, and trying to figure out what it was about some works that enabled us to see their meaning in a context; one might ask what Milton’s Paradise Lost was about, and perhaps one might answer that it is about the historical moment Milton had just lived through. What does it mean though? Well, Paradise Lost means revolution and change.
But what about the Vancouver Olympics? I originally thought it was because it was just because it was home soil, but I realize that there is a lot more to it than that. The events surrounding the Olympics really displayed the quality of the Canadian spirit. From the death of the Georgian Luger and Joannie Rochette’s mother, to the amazing victories and moments to be celebrated throughout the past weeks, there is something in the air, all across the country, that affected me in an interesting way. So what does it mean? What does this vibrancy and energy stemming from the Olympics mean to Canada?
My own answer I think lies in the way Canada faced everything that happened this year. We embraced all those moments and faced them like Canadians, with Glowing Hearts. The pride that I saw come from all the Canadian victory ceremonies that I witnessed really reflected a sense of unity and solidarity that can only come from a nation brought together, not to win medals, but to show the world what we’ve got, and to welcome the entire world into our backyard.
Shane Koyczan, on the day of the opening ceremonies, recited one of his poems, “We are more,” and while he didn’t do justice to what Canada is (he couldn’t have) he did mention a few things that rang true of Canada’s aspirations: “we dream so big, there are some that would call our ambitions an industry.” It is a very real fact that the Olympics mean more than anything to Canada; it was a year of firsts – first Gold on home soil, record number of gold medals, and first time runs for some athletes in the Olympics. It was also a year of greats - great opening and closing ceremonies, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s flawless performances in ice dance, Joannie Rochette’s powerful and emotional performances during female figure skating, all around amazing hockey performances, record breaking scores for our girls hockey team, athletes that made our nation proud, and fans and supporters that made it all possible. But there was something more than all that. We had one more ambition; in the Vancouver Olympic Theme song, performed by Nikki Yanofsky and Annie Villeneuve, the lyrics at one point say “And in my heart there’ll be no doubt, the arms of the world will come reaching out and embrace me to be all I can be.” These very words are Canada’s aspirations; they have been since the dawn of the 20th Century, since we first found our ground on the world stage. This is what I think the Olympics means to Canada: it is a stage for Canada to perform, to show that it is something more than what the world tends to see it as. “We are all the ways you choose to live, a nation that can give you variety because we are choices, we are millions upon millions of voices shouting ‘Keep exploring!’”
Keep exploring.
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Links:
Nikki Yanofsky & Annie Villeneuve singing “I Believe”
For the Opening Ceremonies, visit this link and search for “Opening Ceremony” (without quotes).
