Everything's Better During the Olympics

I love the Olympics.  Love them like watching every prime time coverage, bringing them up in every conversation, definitely frowning at you if you aren't as into them as I am.  This is all kind of weird, because I'm not interested in any other sporting event.  The Superbowl happened last week and I literally did homework in my room.  Sports have never been integral to my life, but the Olympics?  They are everything.

I mean, part of this is obvious.  The Olympics take place in amazing, beautiful, new places!  Sochi, Russia!  How lovely.  I mean, I'm not handwaving away decades of horrific history, but Russia is a beautiful place with an astoundingly rich history.  I loved seeing the cultural contributions Russia has made represented in the Opening Ceremonies.  And I love seeing the little side pieces NBC does about what it's like living in Sochi.  I even really love the awful reporter's tweets about #sochiproblems because they so perfectly capture the insanity of traveling somewhere new.

Can't deny that the Olympics are made of sports, though.  My fondness here is summed up in a(n imperfect) quote by Alex Day, who said of the previous Olympics, "You're literally getting to see someone come up, live the most exciting moment of their lives, and leave.  And then another person comes up and lives the most exciting moment of their lives.  And you get to watch it all and live it with them!"  Lovely.  So exciting, so devastating, so fulfilling.

And the whole pathos of the Olympics!  Countries from around our broken world putting aside political differences and racial tensions for the fun of the game.  It's absolutely beautiful, and honestly a lot like how I imagine eternity.  There's this genuine competitiveness, but alongside the desire to win for your own country, there's this deep respect for talent that seems to exist in nearly all the athletes.  It's lovely.

Also, who cares about dumb butt Superbowl commercials (just kidding, I thought they were mostly really funny).  What I'm saying is that I really really love Olympic commercials.  They are just consistently heartwarming and truly wonderful.  They capture life, and even though they are selling something, I mostly spend those thirty seconds thinking, "Life is beautiful, across the globe, holy cow, I want to live."  I especially love the one where couples are driving in the car and one starts singing obnoxiously to the radio, and then the scene changes to India and the same thing happens, and then China, etc, and the tag line at the end is something like, "We're not that different," and my heart dies.  I also really love the ones that show an Olympic athlete backwards through their life until it pauses and you see them like, take their first step in skis or something.  UGH so touching.

Anyway.  Olympics!  They're my favorite bi-annual activity!