Saturday, January 18, 2014

Hate Is a Strong Word

I don't hate the Olympics, but I really don't care for them. At all.

It all seems a bit disingenuous to suddenly become interested in something that I have no interest in the other three years, 50 weeks between Olympics. Two-man louge? Skeleton? Curling? Not to mention the myriad of sports our US broadcasters don't show us because a) we don't have an American participating or b) it really is too, too small of a sport to drum up any kind of dramatic interest in for the short-attention-span American television viewing audience. (Ski mountaineering anyone?)

But that is just one reason I don't care for the Olympics. The other, of course, is the drama. All those special interest stories they put together about how the athlete struggled and sacrificed and lived in a van down by the river eating government cheese so he could practice bobsled for 12 hours a day while his mom was on dialysis and his dad worked in the coal mine getting black lung--it's too much.

I don't need my heart strings manipulated like that.

I'm not going to watch the opening ceremony, or any of the sports in between--especially ice skating. I will endure the "spoiler alerts" on the evening news and look forward to the closing ceremonies, which I will not watch, but which I will be aware of their happening.

I have no desire to fake interest or get sucked into the manufactured theatrics.

That is all.

No comments: