Article June 17, 1985 Issue

"A man after mine own heart"

GORDON R. CLARKE

Why is it, when you watched some Olympic athlete win a gold medal, something welled up within you that just sent your heart soaring?

You didn't need to know the athlete. He or she didn't necessarily have to be from your own country. You didn't need to have any particular personal experience or even interest in the sports event involved. Yet, when you watched that individual strive and then accomplish well what he or she had set out to do, you found a great audible or inaudible cheer rising up within you.

During the crisis in the Falkland Islands, the British film Chariots of Fire happened to be playing in Argentine movie theaters. The film's true story concerns some British athletes competing in the Olympics during the 1920's. At points in the film several of the main characters win their races, after overcoming great difficulties of various kinds. The winning athletes are all British.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Learning to value the "small" things