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The Real Olympic Spirit
Everyone's hollering about the Chinese Olympics - the repression of dissidents, the restrictions on the press, the crackdown on human rights. Many question whether the Olympic spirit can survive in such an atmosphere. But China has already had an Olympic moment. It's worth looking at.
Last year, the Olympic spirit hit the big stage for the first time in China - at the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai. President Hu Jintao called the games a pillar of his country's effort to build a more harmonious nation. That's notable because it has a spiritual overtone.
Whenever human beings rise above their limitations, reach for what seems beyond them, strive to become great, that's a spiritual moment. And when a young person with an intellectual disability does all that against the odds to the cheers of mother, father, and friend, the spirit is not far away. It was evident in Shanghai.
Can that spirit shine in Beijing this month? It'll be tough. There's so much noise around the Olympics today that it's hard to see through to the athlete's experience--to feel a part of that struggle to be great. All the pageantry and ceremony means nothing if it doesn't point to the desire of the spirit. But if it connects us to that spirit, then it's magnificent.
The debates between critics and supporters of having Olympic events in China rarely touch on matters of the spirit. China's enormous complexity--its size, its political structure, its economy, its history--makes it difficult for anyone to understand its spirit.
One place to try is at the Jade Temple in Shanghai. There, monastic practices, contemplative disciplines, and centuries-old art still command focus. For thousands of years, China has had a culture of prayer and detachment and renunciation. Despite decades of communism, it's still there, a good place to try to understand the spirit of the nation
And one can look at the monuments of economic growth in the skyscrapers of every major city--to the outsized success of a country surging out of massive poverty into the mainstream of manufacturing, trade, and financial power. Hundreds of millions of Chinese have risen above destitution in a matter of a few years. Despite the massive poverty that remains, the growth in wealth is amazing and tells us a lot about the spirit of China.
And one can look at the monuments to the Communist Party--Mao's tomb, the Great Hall of the People, the giant bureau buildings of Beijing. The visuals are unmistakable: one party, in control, setting the goals for a massive uncompromising plan of action. No one speaks of the purges, of the Cultural Revolution, of Tiananmen Square as though they were anything other than minor aberrations on the party road. The party remains an overpowering expression of the Chinese spirit, both for good and for bad.
Religion, money, power--all these are part of the picture that will be on stage this week and throughout the next month. Do they suggest progress or decline? Both. Most Chinese I know are well aware of the delicacy of their situation--that the future could go either way. The real question is not about hating China or loving China; it's about supporting the Chinese people as they try to live the great balancing act of growth and harmony at home and abroad.
There are role models but they might not be on television next week. Like Houng Ru Fan who worked for a government agency in Beijing for many years. Her son Wang has had special needs all his life, and struggled to communicate effectively. He got his chance to compete in the Olympic tradition in 2002 at the Special Olympics National Games in Xi'an and he blossomed. His transformation was so exciting that his mother wrote a book. He's now a warm and personable speaker and a pretty good athlete too.
But when he graduated from his special school at the age of 16, there was nothing for him. Houng took a chance on the spirit--she left the security of a government job and became an advocate for her son. Within a year, she had opened a workshop employing about two dozen people with special needs. The government isn't running it, but it's helping. And her son Wang is not a liability to his family but an asset. He's an asset to his nation as well.
This didn't happen in a vacuum. The Special Olympics movement has actually been working in China for over two decades. Special Olympics China currently reports over 500,000 intellectually disabled athletes competing every year in community-based sports, health, and education events across that vast country.
Given this context, Houng Ru Fan figured out how to push for change while working with the government; how to stay centered while advocating progress; how to earn a living salary while not forgetting those who are poorest. Her story isn't everyone's story in China nor is it everyone's story in the United States. The spirit that lives within the vulnerable is always vulnerable to being forgotten and overlooked.
But it's there and in the best of all worlds, it will shine through during the Olympic Games. If you want to see it, don't count medals; that's nationalistic. Don't cheer against other nations; that's mean-spirited. Don't be arrogant about China's weaknesses; that's destructive.
Try imagining that within each Olympic athlete is the spirit of Wang, yearning to do his best to make his family and his nation proud. Try imagining what China or any other nation would look like if that spirit were celebrated daily, not just once every four years. And try to do what you can to make that happen.
Then you'll have your own Olympic moment. And you'll be able to see if China has one too.
By
Timothy Shriver
|
August 4, 2008; 1:41 AM ET
| Category:
Religion From the Heart
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Posted by: Alex | August 4, 2008 11:45 AM
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A lovely story, and one that should not be lost in the acrimony approaching the games. I know many such stories here in China (and stories in America too!). But it is hard to get the media interested in anything that isn't negative.
Sad, really. We so much need inspiration in our lives, and it is all around us! We should pay more attention to the Wangs and Houng Ru Fans of the world!
Posted by: PatrickInBeijing | August 4, 2008 1:07 PM
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Thanks for the educational article. I am touched by reading it.
Posted by: Ha | August 4, 2008 2:33 PM
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very touching. important things are always ignored. you bring us back to the true meanings of olympics. thank you.
Posted by: sarah | August 4, 2008 2:48 PM
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It's not the best side of me, I admit, but in some ways I just have to laugh at China's smug notion they could turn off the big-time pollution for a couple weeks and have it all go away.
Posted by: Paganplace | August 4, 2008 6:50 PM
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Clearly, the Special Olympics are more akin to the original Olympic ideals than the "regular" Olympics are. It doesn't matter who wins or loses, but that all participants are encouraged and loved. With so much that's wrong in the world today, I'm glad that the Special Olympics are continuing to shine their light and hope.
Posted by: Athena | August 4, 2008 11:17 PM
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My credentials could not be located, a female celebrity talked to me like I was dirt, a football hero was flabbergasted that I had never heard of him, I wasn't "on the list" to say hello to my own hero, your mother, and there was no interpreter for my Deaf son. So why did I come away from the 2007 Special Olympic Games in Shanghai feeling a renewed sense of love, passion, and compassion for humanity?
There are rude, inconsiderate and uncompassionate people in our paths everyday. We can't get around them - we must deal with them and try to make the best of the situation. We can truly learn how to do that if we sit with a quiet spirit and watch the Special Olympic Athletes.
Competition abounds in their hearts, minds and souls, but "competition" has a different definition for the Special Olympic Athlete. The motto, "Let me win, but if I cannot, let me be brave in the attempt", is the foundation of their perserverence - But that is not all. Being a "winner" to a SO athlete is about trying to be first, and helping all other athletes try to be first also - at the same time. Something we "non-SO athletes haven't figured out.
As I sat in the bleachers at the World Games and watched a group of runners get set at their starting marks on the track, tears welled in my lower lids. One gentleman, barely able to walk without help, hobbled over to his starting position, as the others cheered and encouraged him. He prepared to make the first push off step. The starting gun sounded and all the other athletes took off running. This man still hobbled with more intensity than I've ever seen.
Those tears in my eyes spilled over the lower lids and left smeared make up down my cheeks.
The other athletes completed their race...first, second, third, forth, . . ., and their coaches were at the finish line to congratulate them. The one man had barely started and struggled around the track - lap after lap - and finally, at the finish line, he collapsed into the arms of his competitors.
What was his great strength? The other athletes! They stood close, cheering, coaching, loving. Their passion for their fellow human-being was the invisible impetus that took that last runner to the finish line. By this time, a deluge of tears flooded my face, my nose was running and I had no tissue. Of course, I tried to hide all the drippage from my facial orafices, but wondered what to do with it. Until, a beautiful Down Syndrome person tapped me on the shoulder and offered me her scarf to blow my nose on. That day I was more dehydrated from the tears, than from the perspiration.
Thank you, Tim Shriver, for making it possible for these unbelievable people to teach the world how to love again.
"The last shall be first"
PS China has its ways to eliminate smog. I worked for Beijing Jeep during the 50th anniversary of their National Day. All factories within a certain distance of the city were ordered to close for 2-5 weeks before the event. The dead grass was spray painted green, fresh, colorful flowers laced the streets, and multi-colored carnival lights glowed in the black sky. Yes, the sun still looked like a dull white disk in the day sky and there were no stars or moon visible in the night sky, but the air seemed clear.
Posted by: tc | August 5, 2008 9:07 AM
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Dear "Even Atheists have Religion, wether they like it or not":
What is your point??? Trying to read your gibberish gives me a headache. Enroll in a course in typing 101, or don't expect anyone to suffer through trying to read that hogwash.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 5, 2008 11:38 AM
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Dr. T, your insights are well taken and refreshing ! It's continues to be a great thing to see that there are individuals such as yourself who are not afraid to "look beyond our faults nad sees our needs" !
Hopefully, some day sooner than we expect the World Olympics will be as spiritual as the Special Olympics !!!
Posted by: EPPIE | August 5, 2008 3:38 PM
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Thank you Mr. Tim for this refreshing perspective.
Mainstream media channels are hijacking the Games by reporting the shallow thoughtless rhetoric of "so Called" humanitarian and environmental issues. Let’s continue to report on the athletes and the ambition of the Human spirit to overcome the greatest obstacle of achievement, ourselves.