Olympics.....the glue for a cracking country?

I've always liked the Olympics, winter or summer.  It's impressive to me that someone can commit themselves so completely to pushing their bodies and minds beyond what an average dude like me would even think about.  And it's funny, sometimes they make it look so effortless, morons like me sit on the couch, watch them on TV and think..."I could do that if I practiced a little".  Yeah, right bud...weren't you the one with the vein popping out of your forehead trying to overcome the vacuum seal on your new bag of "cool ranch" Doritos? 
The Olympics mean something.  It's something different to just about everyone, but they do mean something.  This year in particular though, I think the games have an added burden to bear, and added dimension of importance that the athletes don't even realize, maybe no one anywhere realizes.  Scarier to me than no one realizing though, is no one caring....no one caring enough about the games and this country to put it all together.   What is this extra load to bear?  Quite simply, this country needs a fix.  We are a country divided...cracked...broken...in need of some TLC and a heavy dose of pride and motivation.   I think the Olympics are the place to start.  

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Thinking about "the games"...there are so many good lessons to be learned from these guys and girls.   We all need examples of commitment, to see what that path really looks like.
We also need to address the myth, "you can do anything you set your mind to"...because sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just...can't.  

For every team member representing our country, how many more have trained, dreamt, bled, dripped sweat, and failed to make the team?  Sometimes you can give it everything you have, and it's just not fast enough, or high enough, or heavy enough....and as much as it's "part of the game", that's a hard pill to swallow.
Alternatively, where would we be if those people, the dreamers and warriors fighting for a singular goal...if they had not tried?  

Imagine the level of mediocrity we'd succumb to if they hadn't been there pushing, training, and competing.  Those "almost made it" players, they define the best, they drive others to be better, to improve lest they lose their own positions.
Without some falling short, but working incredibly hard to do so, we'd have nothing more than a middle school track team--where no one gets cut and everyone is part of the team, and those who stand out seem to do so almost accidentally.

We are in an election year and we are a country divided.  Every aspect of our daily lives is constantly up for debate and we are bombarded with being forced to "choose a side" every time we turn on our tv's, tablets, phones, or computers.  Social media has become a new form of a political echo chamber, and daily status updates our connections are either re-affirming our beliefs or causing us to internally debate whether or not a particular friendship is too valuable to honestly share your own opinion in their comments section. For fear of loss, I'm guessing more often than not we just let it slide.

Amidst all the chaos, all the chatter and disagreement, there can be little doubt that we still live in the greatest country in the world, by several metrics--but I guarantee that statement would start an online debate.  To be fair, we could be better....a lot better.   We have a lot on the table right now as a country, a lot to discuss, debate, and work on, and I hope everyone seriously spends time looking at the issues that will be thrown around the rest of the summer and up to elections.  I hope people vote the issues and not party. To think one party has the market cornered on the best answers is a bit of a simple-minded default.  

I hope that we all take advantage of being a part of an incredible system...knowing that, as hard as we might work at it, as hard as we campaign or just talk with friends, and as much passion we might invest in something...we might lose, we may not find representation on the podium.  But in that fight, in that effort, those around you will become better, smarter, more informed, more "whole"...a better representative for this country. 
And in between all of that, I hope we can all sit down together, eat some Doritos, hang an American flag on our front porch, turn on our TV's, and cheer on our own as they lay it all on the line as representatives of the best the United States has to offer.  We need that time together, unified, proud, and with the same hope for victory...not for ourselves, and not just for those who work so hard for the gold, but for everyone blessed enough to call this country our home. 
Yes, the Olympics mean something big this year, and if the only thing we share this year is a hope for a gold medal or two...well, that is something.