Miracles & Heroes

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I'm sorry but I've never been a great fan of the Olympics. I'm not sure where my inattention comes from - perhaps the only Olympic event I've ever watched was the Hockey Team's go for gold in 1980.

I believe that it is the hero worship we put on the athletes that absolutely turns me off. If you didn't know it, these days you'd think Michael Phelps cured cancer, and solved the deficit problem.

I caught the end of one of his races and the announcer was giggling like a school girl about the accomplishment. Okay, fine - I get it - he's worked hard - and is astounding - but come on, he's swimming!

The announcer was throwing around words like hero, brilliant, and miraculous. It's not a miracle. He gets in the water and moves his arms and legs faster than the other guys - and just by nano-seconds too. He isn't walking on the water.

I have an eight-year old that can swim. My dog recently fell in the pool and without ever having been in water before - he broke Phelp's record to the other side. I turned to my wife and screamed - "Do You Believe in Miracles!"

The problem being that sports is simply a distraction - hero worship is ultimately sickening to me. Enjoy the Olympics, root, root, root for the hometeam, but for God's sake let's not make him king because he grew up playing Marco Polo better than the rest of us.

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