One To Eternity

That is my scale of importance.  It ranks close to the 15 minute rule in darker moments.  Something happens to rattle my calm and I need to find a buffer.  Enter the One-To-Eternity Rule.

Sarah Palin accuses the president of expecting Americans to sit-down-and-shut-up.  Questioned further about the source of her statement, she stumbled into a  remark about his condescending general persona, excusing her spin on the truth.

The Olympic silver medalist, Evgeni Plushenko, castigates the judges for awarding gold to  Evan Lysacek, a man who cannot execute the quad saying that a quad-less routine is not a sport but merely dancing.   Later, Bob Costas interviewed Evan Lysacek.  Lysacek was a gentleman refusing to take the bait of Costas reading Plushenko’s whine.

Scotty Lago won the bronze in half-pipe and posted questionable photographs of himself on the internet.  Doesn’t that qualify for some sort of annoyingly dumb award?

Back to my scale.  In true and valued importance these incidents rank on the single digit side, counting just a smidge more than a golfer who believed that skill and money gave him license to dismiss the rules of integrity.

The macro and micro world are racked by things that matter.  Haiti and the struggles of her people to eat and sleep in safety, to find jobs to earn what  replacements for moments of destruction.

Creeping nastiness in the world of politics and government, a nastiness that gives ordinary citizen a need to forget civil discourse in favor of personal attack.

A world economy that widens a rift between blue-collar struggles and white-collar comfort.

“Need work.  Ask for my resume.”  The new sign of the street corner times, replacing the, “Hungry, please help.”

Forty-five applicants for every available job on a government site.

A Man I Know taking the passenger seat from his car so he can replace it with plywood and pillow…his new home without a home.

A teenage boy will be tried as an adult for stabbing his cousin, killing her for teasing him.

The scale is tipped beyond balance.  These are matters for eternity.

Moments of Joy: Shauni Davis, Apolo Anton Ono, Shawn White and Evan Lysacek

Admittedly, I have my problems with Olympic ‘Sports’ preferring to recognize  this degree of sport as a very high dollar business.  My opinion of the business side declares that available dollars speak the language of success.  And they do, big time.

I made a decision to turn on the television and watch the following particular events.  No doubt there were other memorable moments in the Winter Olympics, but these four events were my choice.

That being said, I need a serving or two of crow.  The human moments trump the business side.

Watching these young men was amazing.  Shauni Davis and Apolo Ono are the epitome of grace under pressure.  They skate with intensity and precision and I was clapping and pumping the air with their success.

Shawn White?  Bursting….bursting with joy, unable to stop smiling, hyper even on the podium.  I wanted to be celebrating with his family.

It’s Lysacek in an upset read the sports page headline.  How could anyone call Evan Lysacek’s gold medal an upset? Breathtaking is so over-used, but I held my breath during several parts of his program.

The business end,  all the dollars invested opened their doors to success.  The sponsor support, the family backing and the lifetime dedicated to practice came together at the medal ceremony.  The personal human moment of victory was glorious.  The  performance of these four young men, medal winners and proud representatives of the United States, was amazing.

Crow does not taste like chicken.