It's Time! It's Time! It's Time!

Oh yay.

Every two years I totally geek-out over the Olympics.

Two reasons for this:

The first, and less important one, is the bit about watching sports.  I generally don't watch much sports.  But I do like watching the best in sports -- any sport.  And the Olympics is the freakin' grand-daddy of them all.  It's like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup and Wimbledon all rolled up into one.  For two weeks, I get to watch the very bestest the world can offer in everything from archery to wrestling.  Eeeeeee!

And the second reason is that I fall for the whole "share a moment with the world" vibe.  (And bless NBC this year for all the live coverage they're giving us -- because it is much more fun to share a moment with the world when the rest of the world is having the moment at the same damn time.)  But I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see people at their best -- not just athletically, but the human spiritness of it all.  When I think back at great Olympic moments, it isn't just the tenths-of-a-second victories.  It's watching an athlete from a former Soviet Union country weep as he sees his country's flag fly over the Games for the first time.  It's watching a young judo athlete refuse to go for his opponent's injured ankle, because that's not how it's done.  It's watching young men and women from North and South Korea marching together in the Opening Ceremony. 

The Olympics are an opportunity for national pride, but also an opportunity to celebrate other nations, and check in on the overall progress of the planet.  How wonderful to watch Kuwait send its first female athlete to the Games, or the swimmers representing the Cayman Islands (even though the entire country does not have an Olympic-sized pool).  We'll also see the first female Pakistani Swimmer in the Olympics, and -- heck -- we haven't had the opening ceremonies yet and already the Iraqi soccer team (making its first appearance in 16 years) had a stunning upset victory in its first game.

Man, I haven't even watched anything yet and I'm already getting all misty-eyed.