The City of Los Angeles is experiencing its usual heat wave at this time of year but, the humidity is uncharacteristically high. It's foggy in the morning and sometimes the early morning mist reminds you of the dew that covers the ground on those hot sultry days in the south.
Los Angeles has also been celebrating all week long because the 2015 Special Olympics World Games are being held at the Memorial Coliseum where the 1932 and 1984 Olympics were held. USC, and UCLA have also added their campuses and sites for housing and some events. It has been a glorious week with 7,000 very special kids and adults from 177 countries running, jumping and throwing just to be able to feel "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" The only difference is that many of these athletes do not know how to express the "agony of defeat" because they only know the joy of competing.
The opening ceremonies that were held last Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was witnessed by 80,000 cheering fans who watched these very special athletes march into the stadium while waving their country's flag and grinning from ear to ear. What a joyful display of innocence this was and the celebration became official when the first lady of the United States , the glorious Michele Obama addressed the crowd. With her, they raised their hands to the sky in triumph before any event had taken place.
The games and events have been outstanding to watch and sometimes, in their own special way, brought smiles to one's face because these are young people with disabilities and all that they want to do is compete. This entire movement was started by Eunice Shriver Kennedy and has become a worldwide phenomenon with big time sponsors and coverage by ESPN.
More importantly, these Special Olympics gives the world a break from the mess of wars, murders, and all of the other bad "stuff" that sane people do everyday because if you were to watch just one event, you will understand the joy of living that is displayed by these participants.
During a basketball game, one young man made a basket and the personal celebration that he displayed was far better than any celebration any NBA player could ever perform. It was just a simple display of his joy of accomplishment. It was fresh, it was touching and it reminds us that there's more to life than the self adulation that we often times suffer.
The challenges that these young people live through everyday surpasses the self-inflicted pains of our existence, yet they persevere, pick themselves up everyday and smile as if there's no tomorrow and in some cases, the law of averages say there isn't.
The closing ceremonies for this year's Special Olympics will be this coming Sunday night and if you want to round out your good Friday weekend on a high note, tune in because you will be extremely pleased and gratified. And as Bruno Mars sings in his hit tune "Uptown Funk", "if you don't believe me just watch".
Mad Man
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