Yesterday I was standing in line at a neighborhood post office. I love going to this particular post office because it is like taking a side trip to the United Nations. There are so many different cultures represented, faces of people who have made their way to this country from lands far away who now call the United States home. As we all stand waiting to make connections through the United States Postal service, I always find myself imagining where their letters and packages are headed. My mail, in comparison, always seem so boring, so routine. I listened to the different languages being spoken and then the broken English that was conjured up to communicate with the postal worker. It was wonderful to watch the interchanges on the faces of both the worker and the sender as they maneuvered through language and body language to get to a certain destination: their mail sent. 

Standing in front of me in the line was a man who had earphones on, listening intently. I assumed he was listening to his ipod trying to tune out the jumbled sounds of voices and interchanges that were giving me such pleasure. But then he turned to me, a smile spread across his face. "Do you want to know how Lindsey Vonn did?" I was startled out of my multicultural experience. "Yes. " I replied. He then smiled even wider and put his fist out toward mine. "Gold!" he said and moved his fist closer as I returned his fisted salute, bumping our gripped hands together in celebration. 

Now I have to admit I have seen many people do this fist bump greeting but I have never participated in it. And as I did this with a total stranger it filled me with such joy. Here was a man so into the Olympics that he was walking around listening to broadcasts while he did his errands. At that moment he needed someone to share his joy over a gold medal won by a fellow American on the other side of the country. I happened to be the lucky one standing behind him in the post office line. 

These Olympic games have the ability to galvanize people of all walks of life, don't they? I find myself talking about them with people I know and don't know, sharing what we thought, felt and believe about these athletes. Even people who never talk about or follow sports, somehow get drawn into the thrills and the defeats of these games. Yesterday I watched as the young Georgian luger's body was returned to his country and my heart ached for his family, for the people of his homeland who had followed his career as we have followed our country's athletes. Such loss, such hope, such opportunity all crammed into a couple of weeks in February. 

And what a gift they are in these February days when we ourselves are tired of snow and long for summer sunshine. To see others taking on the cold and the snow in ways that defy the odds and sometimes even sanity is a bright spot to lift us above the ordinary. While I can never imagine doing any of the skateboarding or figure skating moves, I can appreciate and cheer for those who have the skill and gifts to create such speed and beauty. Plus it gives us something to talk about at work and in the post office line besides the weather. And that is always a good thing. 

"The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity"~Pierre de Coubertin