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Wed. Jul 07, 2004

Still Carrying a Torch

The Olympics start with a simple flame: “For the ancient Greeks, fire had a divine connotation — it was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. Therefore, fire was also present at many of the sanctuaries in Olympia. A fire permanently burned on the altar of Hestia in Olympia. During the Olympic Games, which honoured Zeus, additional fires were lit his temple and that of his wife, Hera. The modern Olympic flame is ignited at the site where the temple of Hera used to stand.”

And in this Olympic year, it’s on a special round trip journey. The Olympic Torch is on a 35 day tour around the world, during which it will visit every city where the Olympics have been held. A few weeks ago, that included Atlanta, just after the torch had been carried in Los Angeles and St. Louis, and before it moved on to New York. There, for a quarter mile, it was carried by John Bauters:

As I got off the bus and ran around the crowd, hugging my friends and family and high-fiving strangers, it finally dawned on me what it meant to carry the Olympic Torch.

Traveling the world, the very same flame had been carried across every continent to cities of every cultural, ethnic, religious, social, and political heritage. It had traveled to places wrought with conflict, strife, and hunger, and to places of peace and prosperity. It had been celebrated and even revered by people from New Delhi to Beijing to Cairo, just as it was being welcomed before me in New York.

I was awestruck. As my torch was lit and cameras flashed from all sides, I realized how significant, yet small, my 400-meter trek was to the purpose of this flame.

For a brief moment, I became the vessel for a force that in a divided world still helps bring people together through the common human experience. The power wielded by the Olympic torch reminds me of the goals I have pursued in my work and gave me a renewed hope for my dreams of a united world.

Christian Science Monitor: “Briefly, the bearer of Olympic hopes and dreams”

Sound a bit overwrought? I’m not one to ask. This was the second time I’ve seen the Olympic Torch Run, after the much bigger deal it was here in 1996, and I didn’t go back this time because it was about Atlanta. It was about the flame, what it represents, and the 132 torchbearers who carried it around Atlanta. They were the lucky ones, chosen from thousands of people nominated for their civic efforts, their personal triumphs, or some other way they’d inspired people to nominate them.

Every quarter mile, one torch would light off another, and the flame would change hands. Every quarter mile, friends, family and strangers cheered on their “personal torchbearer,” just as happened to John Bauters the next day in New York. Every quarter mile, dozens of people were intimately touched by that flame, in addition to “strangers” who came by for less personal reasons.

All the way around the world. That’s part of the power of the Olympics. Despite the fact it is the ultimate “world class competition,” it breeds commonality. Off the field as much as on it. And we sure could use more of that, eh?

The Olympics will open in Athens in a very few weeks. Between now and then, you’ll hear lots and lots about terror threats, construction issues, and other potential problems. Just remember; that’s not what the Olympics are about. They are about a long held ideal, never fully met, but strived for nonetheless. A world gathered together in peace, for at least 16 days out of the 1,461 that pass every four years.

And it all begins with one small flame.

In closing, I can’t help but note another example of a continuing trend in the media; gross factual errors that are easily debunked. Here’s what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter wrote (emphasis mine): “The Olympic flame — said to have never gone out for 108 years — is scheduled to arrive in its own jet Friday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on its 35-day journey around the globe.”

Five minutes with Google reveals several sites with, um, “alternate facts,” like this one: “The Olympic Flame is nowadays ignited several months before the opening celebration of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics, Olympia, Greece. Eleven priestesses (played by actresses) light the fire by placing a torch in a concave lens which concentrates rays from the Sun.”

So as you peruse the news, realize that any given story is probably 80-90% accurate. You just get to figure out which 10-20% is false or misleading.