Article August 4, 2008 Issue

THE OLYMPICS: THEIRS AND OURS

BY JAMES SPENCER

To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.—Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160

THIS IS THE SEASON when much of the world focuses on the quadrennial Summer Olympics. These Games engage the thought of both athletes and non-athletes alike. They pull on the human spirit as we watch individuals push the envelope on all sorts of limitations. Past records often fall. Emotions run the gamut from the ecstasy of success to the agony of defeat. Individuals give more than their best. Nations vie for billing and spend lavishly on preparations. And of course, commercialism taps every opportunity available.

We might well ask: Are the hype, the economic commitment, the national jostling, the success of winning, and the devastation of losing, all an anachronism in today's world of nations facing grinding poverty; racial, cultural, religious, and national rivalries; and catastrophic natural disasters?