August 7, 2016 — Taking my bustle out of my new hedgerow (yes, I’m finally done planting my hedge plants), I’m catching up on the Olympics. I’m not sure one who has done as little training as I have in the past two years can still call themselves an athlete, so I guess I will relate to the athletes only from a nostalgia point of view… for now. For me, the love of sports, and the respect I have for all fellow athletes (see I can’t help myself) is as strong as my love of music, my love of words. How amazing is it to watch their victories? How amazing is it to root for one’s country through the efforts of these individuals? The Olympics truly is a special moment.

But sports, these kind of sports especially, is not that one moment we see. No, it’s the hours and hours, and days and days, and years and years that go into it. It’s the efforts and support of the families, the trainers and coaches. It’s practice. It’s dedication. So the athletes are an inspiration … for everything. Their victories are an inspiration for everything. Even more, the cooperation of the other countries, the people of the world shows the good that exists in all of us.

The Olympics’ promo song, or at least what I’m seeing is Katy Perry’s song Rise. She must be doing something right with her timing, what with the Democratic National Convention appearance and performance and now this song being featured for commercials for the Olympics. Pop radio is raving over this video. Personally it reminds me of David Lee Roth scaling mountains, but that’s okay; it’s still beautiful. Rolling Stone says the video is a “literal interpretation of struggle, conquering fear and perseverance.” Blah, blah, blah, yeah that and a really gorgeous desert, really cool make-up and flying, oh how amazing would it be to fly?

Okay, but what is all of that? Personally, not that I matter more than Rolling Stone, I think it’s a literal interpretation of training. I remember an athlete I used to know, a young teen. She, like many others, would share their wisdom; athletes are ridiculously giving despite all of their necessary competitiveness. She told me what her coach taught her, this young girl’s words-repeated: “do one thing each day that scares you.” Those are mighty words echoed from the mouth of a teen, but the words are the key to what it takes. If you do that, if you live like that, then after a while, nothing scares you … because you know you’re going to do it. It’s training, pure and simple.

That’s why I watch the Olympic athletes. I watch because they bring the scary things into the world of actual. They make it seem as if there are no limits to anything. They make the world good. They make me want to get out there and live like that; they make me want to do one thing each day that scares me until nothing scares me anymore, italicized because I’m singing those words from the Lana del Rey song I’m working on, still echoing in my head. Well that and the passage I happened upon recently and photographed so I could remember it. “And there were no limits to anything.” “And I was not afraid anymore.”