This month Susan is working on a proposal for a non-fiction book and revising her children’s picturebook stories. (She is making up for her lack of writing in February when she laboured tirelessly in celebration of Olympic athletes from all over the world.)

Okay. So the Olympics are over and it will take all of this month to get back to my new normal – which is still under construction, yet to be determined and gleefully unknown. In the meantime, I take stock of my personal Olympic experience.

Total houseguests: 14 – from Ottawa, Boston, Victoria and Vancouver.
Olympic athletes who stopped by for a visit: 1 – Patrick Biggs who placed 35th in Giant Slalom.
Number of cheers, tears and jumps for joy: ∞.

Just before the Games began I got a call: would I turn over my livingroom couch to my sons’ friend, Andrew? Andrew the couch-surfer put in ten days of volunteer duty and kept me well-stocked with laughs, collector pins and news from the Athletes Village.

Favourite Andrew moment #3: grooving to the Bare Naked Ladies in Whistler Village Square.
Favourite Andrew moment #2: his story about waking up in the middle of the night – by a bus driver, in an empty bus at the end of the line.
Favourite Andrew moment #1:
Me (cheerfully): “Good morning, Andrew.”
Andrew (faux-cheerfully): “Good morning.”
Me: “What time did you get home last night?”
Andrew: “Twenty minutes ago.”

I was able to take in three events, one of which was the Women’s Bobsleigh final where Canadian athletes won gold and silver. Cue the hysteria.

Special thanks go to my oldest son who is currently in a grad school program in Toronto. Michael was the only family member to enter the Olympic ticket lottery and he scored big – up until the moment he realized that grad school would take up his every spare minute. He generously shared his tickets among family members (and scored some very good grades at school instead).

Of course, in the quest to be higher, stronger and faster, we discover that we are human and therefore fallible. These Games began with such terrible news. An athlete died in a training run at the sliding centre just minutes away from my home. David Letterman, of all experts, blamed “the Canadians.” The weather was awful. Alpine events were cancelled. Events at Cypress Mountain were so disorganized as to be named a disaster zone. Just two days into the Games a writer declared these “The Worst Games Ever.”

Our worst fear. This was one collosal mistake.

About three or four days in, however, the spirit turned. I watched a bunch of kids from Sardis, BC delight audiences with the hippest of hip drumlines. Picture it: high school students with drums, glockenspiels and one bagpipe, playing tunes by Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Coldplay. You haven’t heard Smoke on the Water until you’ve heard it rocked out with maximum percussion.

I was in the city for a few days for my birthday (PS, if you ever have the chance to attend the Olympics during your birthday, take it). My friend Alison took me out for dinner – and to see The Canadian Tenors at an outdoor concert in Richmond. My friends Judi and Carol took me for lunch – and to wander the downtown streets of the city. The weather was clear, skies blue, spirits open. Everyone seemed to agree at once: fun cannot be chased down. Relax. It just is.

Happily I put in my volunteer time more than a year ago, where I learned that I wanted to experience the Games as a free agent. I’m not a big fan of the Olympic hierarchy but neither am I a fan of the activists who protest the Games even as they are happening. Life is so much more than one single note. There is room, to paraphrase Walt Whitman, to contain multitudes.

And there is a kind of transcendence in physical challenge.
Watch:
A hockey game between Switzerland and Belarusse where the players salute the crowd at game’s end.
Two young adults who have been skating together since they were children.
A young woman give the skate of her life just days after her mother’s death.
A young man cheer on a woman who wins gold in the same event he just ‘lost’.

Fantastic performances. People at the height of their mental, physical and just maybe their spiritual talent.

On the final day of the Games, when I spoke with my son Chris* about his Olympic experience, it suddenly occurred to me – it has been the Echo Boom generation that stoked the flames of exuberance. (Hey, allow me to purple my prose a little here.) When observers talked about the “spirit of Canadian people” they were talking about these young adults who kept the mellow but spirited energy alive twenty-four hours a day for seventeen days.

My my. What a way to celebrate the human spirit. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Oh, and one more thing. Here is the exchange with my real life Kindergarten Mafia friends after Canada’s win over the US in Men’s Hockey:
E-mail #1 from Georgina:

Now for a gal that really doesn’t watch NHL hockey, I was so excited
I almost peed myself …. I had a dog treat in my hand and a cracker
in the other, gave the dog the cracker and put the dog treat in my
mouth! ….. YIKES, the things we do when we win GOLD!

Yeah CANADA, now we have the cherry on top!

Love G

Email #2 from Barb:

I watched the first 12 minutes or so in the lounge at YVR with a group of other reluctant travellers - then got on my plane bound for San Francisco. The pilots made my day today. They tuned in a.m. radio stations for us - whatever they could get - all the way down the coast. From time to time - we couldn’t hear anything and so they’d get an update from the air traffic control guys - then we’d get another strong a.m. signal for a while and on it went.

When I heard Crosby get the winning goal and gave a loud whoop, the woman across the aisle from me assumed the US had just won. A little self-conscioius but very proud, I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Oh Canada!

xo
Barb

Email #3 from Sally:
Wow! That was quite something – I was in my living room with Paul, Paul, Julie, Rob and Linda. I ran out on the deck banging pots and pans – but it was QUIET out there!!
XO
Sally
And my reply:

Oh girls,
I am here in Whistler and laughing myself silly over your emails. LMAO. ROTFLMAO.

Sally, I also banged pot lids outside as soon as we won. No one out there doing the same thing. Quiet.

And then I walked up the back path with Mom and Bob and all we could hear were the cheers, horns and cars honking their happiness.

Too much fun.

Love your biscuits and your plane trip Barb.
We Are Canadian.
xoxoxoxo my girlfriends,
Susan
*Click on the link to see Chris’ latest commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1We4PhZ0_w
(He’s the guy who’s pummelled, tackled and tagged.)
(I am such a Mom.)