and so the National Conversation ends with deep collective sigh which is quickly overcome by exuberance, giddiness, and most of all pride.
this is the one we were waiting for.
the Olympics served to send a message, to the world and most of all to ourselves. After some 150+ years of existence, this country is ready to celebrate its own. We are ready to see we love this place, we are proud of we are and what we are becoming.
Throughout these games, the greateast thng we learned, is that Canadians are finally able to love themselves. And love themselves with great bursts, without shame or apology. We are coming to terms with who are are. Often in young nations it takes this long to truly know who you are, what you are celebrating. It takes about a 150 years to figure out.
Today was the defining moment.
Mens Ice Hockey Gold.
This is the one, whether right or wrong, ultimately decided whether these games were a success or not. Winning the Gold in this event, means everything. It is the National Converasation. It has been the National whisper for a year, a National Murmur since August, the National undercurrent through the last few months, and over the last two weeks it has been the dominant conversation in this country and will be for some time.
Mens Ice Hockey Gold.
We went to the centre of the city after the game, I wore my flag and walked with my wife. My cheeks are sore, I haven't stopped smiling.
There were random high fives and hugs. Spontaneous cheers, chants and breakouts of the anthem.
So many people taking over Yonge Street, seas of flags, horns continously honking, people screaming, jubilant, reverent.
and by people I mean that, peeople. This city is the world. There are more nations of people here than anywhere else on this planet and tonight they came out, all colours, all types, ones that looked like me, that looked like my wife, that looked like neither of us except in our collective joy. They came to celebrate this place, this country, this promise. For all that this country is, for all that this city is a microcosm of, for all our tension, there is one thing that binds us from coast to coast to coast. There is one thing that each successive generation of this lands souls have been told and taught. Wherever they might be from, no matter who they are, we are held together by this game. This beautiful game that is our National Religion, our National Conversation, our National Connection. So wherever you are in the world tonight, I know you feel the same, you felt it tonight, you will take it with you for all the rest of your lives.
Men's Ice Hockey Gold.'
Amen, brother.
ReplyDeleteThough I started out tentative about this whole Olympics From Afar thing, by the end I was yelling at 9am in a house full of very annoyed, very hungover people as Canada won curling gold on our Sunday morning. Fortunately the house belonged to a fellow canuck, and a curler.
Now I look at our Golden finish, and I wonder if this wasn't how it was always meant to be: The True North Strong and Free; the land of ice and snow and bears, where to be outside at some times in some places is to die. We are of the winter, and we seem to have gone along with it meekly for far too long. It's about time we channeled spirits of the tundra and the whiteout and laid claim to the olympics that once descended from a northern, glaciered olympus.
Sure, there are the Norse and the Swedes and the Finns: those who invented our winter gods, but perhaps they have lived with this cold for far too long--perhaps they have domesticated it and no longer fear it. Whereas we are still the new children of the ice: living in this Other Land of white, where the winter is still wild and few of us ever dare to venture into the deep North.
Sorry. I blathered on your wall. I'll go look for something to clean it up...
I'm sorry I missed the party in the Free City.
What a game. I was in rehearsal all day, but we luckily had a dinner break and I was able to make it out to a local bar to catch the third period.
ReplyDeleteIn that moment 24 seconds away from gold, I screamed as the US scored the tying goal. However, I had to give them credit for pulling that one out, taking Miller out of net and giving it everything they had. It only made our victory much sweeter.
I don't often watch sports in bars, and I was fascinated at the phenomenon of comradeship that exists in an event like this. It was as if the entire facility stopped being their own separate parties, and became one, united in this national struggle. When Crosby ended the heart-stopping torment, it was like we all were able to explode in that orgasmic victory yell, as the bar rose to its feet and screamed.
Then, in a moment that I can only describe as sheer patriotism, as they raised our flag in Vancouver, the hundred or so people in the restaurant rose to their feet and sang O Canada. I can't say that I have been part of something like that, at least not in a very long time.
So, yes, I was proud to be Canadian, and it was a beautiful moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.