A few moments afterwards, our senior pastor got up to do the announcements and mentioned that a good number of churches in Richmond, including the white churches, are going on a prayer walk at the Richmond Olympics Oval this Saturday to intercede for our city and for the upcoming sporting event.

At first I was quite “meh” about it.  I mean, I don’t give a toss about the Olympics, in fact I want to piss all over it, and going to a prayer walk on an early Saturday morning is about the last thing I want to do these days.

But my friend, who is filled with the Spirit, brought to me the conviction that I have been consciously avoiding for far too long.

“I just want to go see if there are any pretty girls there”, he said.

You know the feeling you get when you know clearly that God is calling you to do something worthy?  Something that glorifies His name?  Something that brings a wee little tear to your eye?

I don’t give a toss about the Olympics, I don’t feel like going to a prayer walk, but I do care so very much about following the will of God, and seizing every opportunity to meet some nice, devout Christian girls is a big part of that.

Oh, I am SO going to this prayer meeting!

How does it work, that us taxpayers have to pay for this stupid mess that the government made?

The Olympics is stupid enough to start with.  Every sport  that is worthy to be called a sport has its own form of a World Cup anyways, what the heck is the point of Olympics existing these days?

Worst of all, we’re talking about the Winter Olympics here!  Watching some dude cross country skiing and then firing his rifle at some targets is not exactly what gets me off my armchair in excitement.  The most exciting thing is probably figure skating where you’ll get to see some pretty Russian girl or something like that.

Maybe it’s ’cause I semi-work for the government.  And I get to find out everyday how the government’s job is really to screw us common folks over.  A new way everyday.

It’s almost like the King Deals at Burger King.  A new combo everyday.

Brilliant.

You keep hearing people saying things like “Oh have we even won a medal yet?” or “Even [obscure country] has won a medal, we suck!”.

Honestly, can you imagine a proper fan of, say, the Canucks, saying things like that?  Saying things like “Oh have we even won a game yet?” 10 games into the season?  Or saying “man, we suck, even the NY Islanders have won a game”?

It’s ridiculous.

If you were truly a Canadian and actually care about the Olympics, first off, you would at least know the athletes by name.  If you are Canadian, then you and the athletes come from the same nation, and you ought to at least know them by name and support them.  And not refer to them as if it’s a entertainment show on the tele (“have the team even won yet?”).

Secondly, if you were truly Canadian and actually care about the Olympics, you would cheer and support your nation whether we won jack squat or not, and not whine and moan like a pre-school kid (“Oh have we won anything yet?”).  Reminds me of those hiking trips in grade 7 when that annoying kid always asked “are we there yet?”.

How hard is it for people to understand that supporting a cause has nothing to do with how successful it is right now?  You support it because it is the only thing you could possibly do.

I mean this bugs me as much as kids telling me “why do you care about the Whitecaps, they suck”.

I support them because I have got no choice – I live in Vancouver, and I love soccer.  And of course now I have grown attached as well.

Anyways if you were to ask me I would rather the Olympics were to go away completely.  I mean there are already World Cups and world championships for most of the sports that people actually care about.

I really don’t get it. You look at the real sports and you see prodigies popping up only once every few decades. Folks like Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Pele, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, etc. And I can’t see anyone being able to repeat what, say, Pele has done.

Yet at these silly Olympics, you get new record holders almost every 4 years now. What the heck?!

Some claim it’s due to advances in training methods, diet, Blah blah blah. Yeah, as if the athletes from 4 years ago somehow were just lazier and ate McDonald’s everyday? As if that little piece of suit the swimmers put on can make that much of a difference?

I hate to say it but I think it’s all just good scientists making drugs that are better and better at going under the radar.

I can’t even see myself taking the Olympics seriously.

The other thing is, I firmly adhere to the school of thought that “players come and go, but clubs stay forever”. A simple analogy is to treat clubs/teams as religions, whilst their players only deacons or priests or what have you.

Clubs will never go away. They will remain in people’s hearts. On the other hand, players do wither and fade, but for the faithful, they couldn’t really care less. It’s the clubs that matter.

These Olympics, however, are all about the players, and that just does not sit right with me. They might raise flags and all but I don’t see how any ordinary person can get too attached to them.