The Olympics
Watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi (and all the inspirational commercials the interrupt it) has elicited a couple of unrelated thoughts in me.
First, it's incredible how much these athletes have given to their sports, and it's a reminder of the kind of dedication and focus that dreams deserve. Most of the athletes aren't professionals, yet their passion inspires them to spend those many extra hours training, hours that I too often fritter away sleeping, watching TV, or on Facebook. I'm inspired, for a while at least, to bring that same sort of devotion to my writing. I may still be an amateur in the sense that I have a 'day job,' but that doesn't mean that I should approach writing with anything but the most serious devotion.
Second, the Russian spectacle evokes my ambivalent feelings towards Russia. I studied Russian language and literature in college but regretfully never visited. I loved Dostoevsky but couldn't stand Tolstoy. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities I most wish to visit, and I've dreamed of riding the Trans-Siberian Express all the way to Vladivostok since I was a teenager; but given the state-sponsored homophobia, I have no intention of visiting any time soon. My ambivalence has been heightened, of course, by the fact that my Russian professors were all ex-pats who grew up under Soviet rule. So in addition to their love of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, ballet, and symphonies, they talked about painful bureaucracy, Soviet propaganda, and the Red Terror.
Oops
Third, it's a reminder that I ought to keep up with my Russian. When it's not coming from the mouths of people at work speaking to each other at a million miles an hour, I can still understand significant chunks of it, and that's something worth retaining.
And finally, whatever happens in Russia and whatever has happened already around these games - displaced people, an ill-prepared city, extreme politicization (complete with a lecture from the IOC President about leaving politics at home) - I will leave you with the most alluring sentiment I know to have come out of Russia. From Dostoevsky, a man who unquestionably suffered in his relatively short life, comes an idea that became my mantra the moment I heard it: "Beauty will save the world."
First, it's incredible how much these athletes have given to their sports, and it's a reminder of the kind of dedication and focus that dreams deserve. Most of the athletes aren't professionals, yet their passion inspires them to spend those many extra hours training, hours that I too often fritter away sleeping, watching TV, or on Facebook. I'm inspired, for a while at least, to bring that same sort of devotion to my writing. I may still be an amateur in the sense that I have a 'day job,' but that doesn't mean that I should approach writing with anything but the most serious devotion.
Second, the Russian spectacle evokes my ambivalent feelings towards Russia. I studied Russian language and literature in college but regretfully never visited. I loved Dostoevsky but couldn't stand Tolstoy. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities I most wish to visit, and I've dreamed of riding the Trans-Siberian Express all the way to Vladivostok since I was a teenager; but given the state-sponsored homophobia, I have no intention of visiting any time soon. My ambivalence has been heightened, of course, by the fact that my Russian professors were all ex-pats who grew up under Soviet rule. So in addition to their love of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, ballet, and symphonies, they talked about painful bureaucracy, Soviet propaganda, and the Red Terror.
OopsThird, it's a reminder that I ought to keep up with my Russian. When it's not coming from the mouths of people at work speaking to each other at a million miles an hour, I can still understand significant chunks of it, and that's something worth retaining.
And finally, whatever happens in Russia and whatever has happened already around these games - displaced people, an ill-prepared city, extreme politicization (complete with a lecture from the IOC President about leaving politics at home) - I will leave you with the most alluring sentiment I know to have come out of Russia. From Dostoevsky, a man who unquestionably suffered in his relatively short life, comes an idea that became my mantra the moment I heard it: "Beauty will save the world."
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