The Olympic Dream

Every once in a while we miss not having television reception. With the Olympics on, now happens to be one of those times. We did, however, have a chance to watch some of it last night while at a relative's house and I noticed something.

As I sat there watching the figure skating, I remembered back to when I was a little kid watching those incredibly graceful and talented young people float across the ice and oh how I wished I could do that, too! I remember pretending to be a world class figure skater downstairs in the basement. As I got a little older, I remember the desire I had to get out on the ice myself and try some of those "tricks". (Of course, back then it was a lot easier to get out on the ice. First, we actually had frozen ponds for the majority of winter and second, if it was a frozen pond, you could pretty much be assured of being allowed to skate on it!).

So as we sat there watching the figure skating last night, I noted the mesmerized look on some of my children's faces, too. On the ride home, Mr 4 yo kept us entertained with all of his stories about how he and his future wife were going to be ice skaters. Today brought more talk of professional skaters, as well as some of the girls in leotards skating around on the ceramic tile in the basement.

How neat it is to see this same reaction happening in them that happened in me. There is something special about watching the Olympics and seeing these young people striving for such heights. It makes me wish we had TV reception for the next few weeks. It also makes me wish that, even though I'm past my ice-skating prime, my pathetically out-of-shape body wasn't quite so pathetically out-of-shape. With Lent right around the corner, maybe I'll still be motivated to do something about that (although I doubt it:)