Some things I never thought I would see in my lifetime. First, back in college when I read The Godfather, I never imagined I would see the motion picture version of it, where the portrayed characters in the movie looked so much like those described in the book. That was not the first time. When my brothers and I read the trilogy and the prequel tomes of Tolkien, I have all but given up on seeing all these on the widescreen, after being disappointed at watching a poor version by American animator and director, Ralph Bakshi. When Peter Jackson finally showed the world his masterpieces, I thought I had now seen everything.
Forgive the ravings of an old man, books and movies are just but a few of my interests. When rarely these two blend together perfectly such as in book to movie, for me, it’s almost like the feeling of a baby when he sees Jollibee in the flesh for the first time.
Another interest which I believe I share with many of our countrymen, is the fascination for Olympic sports. I remember in grade four the nationwide celebration when our boxer Villanueva won the country’s first-ever Olympic silver medal. Since then, I became an avid follower over the progress of a few promising athletes, especially in swimming and boxing. Through several summer Olympic games thereafter, even with our boxers at the forefront winning bronzes and several silvers, I was already resigned to the idea that perhaps in my lifetime, I’d never witness a gold winner, as the Olympic games featured the best athletes in all the world. That was not until Hidilyn Diaz snatched that distinction during the 2020 games. We’ve finally broken through, I thought then and even for couch potato athletes like ourselves, it felt like we too, won that gold.
The just-concluded summer games should have seen our very best finish ever, if it were only based on the medal tally. At last, we garnered two gold medals (from only one athlete), and two bronze medals in boxing. There were likewise fourth place finishes which were just shy of bronze medals. Also, in terms of ranking, where we reached our highest so far, with a 37th-place finish.
Sadly, this momentous occasion of winning for the country two gold medals, right from the start, have become overshadowed by squabbling over personal and money matters, magnified over social media and perpetrated by a commercial media out for a scoop in the name of “human interest”. Further on, it was joined in by a merry-mix of personalities from out of the woodwork, who perhaps, intended to capitalize on the attention from this nationwide bandwagon.
In not so many words, the only other interesting thing out of this cheap and shameful display of innate characteristics inside us is, if eventually measured in gold, silver or bronze, and if in a multiverse there was an Olympic games for it, how far would fare in the order of toxicity?
