Celebration of Restitution

I, like the rest of Canada, was well aware of the final day of Olympics this last weekend.  The hockey game between Canada and the US effectively shut down the country as we all joined together in watching the game, and in joyful anticipation of the eventual victory.  Wow...Sunday felt good, eh?

But the moment that keeps coming back to me this morning as I am at the counselling office is not one at the hockey game, but one that occurred at the beginning of the closing ceremonies.

The moment I most remember opened with humor as a mime in maintenance garb pops up from the non-functioning arm of the Olympic cauldron, and with great showmanship, connects the cord and with all the strength a mime can muster, pulls the cauldron arm up, bit by imaginary bit, into place.  (We remember how only 3 of the 4 arms arose during the Opening Ceremonies, and how the event of having 4 Canadian sporting legends light the Olympic flame together is marred when only 3 can participate.  Catriona Le May Doan just stood there not able to actively participate in the honorable task.  The others contributed and she just stood there.  It was unfortunate.)

But on Sunday afternoon, at the closing games as the giant arm goes up, out of the ground comes Catriona Le May Doan, an Olympic superhero star that was denied her chance to contribute at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Olympics. And then she lights her arm of the structure that together formed the Olympic cauldron.

I LOVED it when Catriona arose out of the ground, and she lit her arm of the cauldron.

It was beautiful.
It had humor to it.
It righted a wrong.
There was a sense of empowering justice.
It did so without shame…the whole thing was done proudly at the Closing Ceremony.

But it was a tangible way for the people that “blew it” on the Opening Night with the arm malfunction to express their apology. To visibly and concretely and positively make a wrong, well, to make it right. I respect that. I chucked at the moment, and smiled widely when Catriona got her moment.

It just felt like an apology done well…it “closed the loop” to the initial error in a matter of fact way that says to the world, "We've righted a wrong". 

Thanx, VANOC, for showing the world many good Olympics moments- in my eyes, this was one of the best!