Tonight marks the beginning of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. I love watching the Olympics when it comes around every two years. Countries from all over the world gather in peace and have a friendly competition of the purest kind: sport.
It’s thrilling to watch the amazing athletes strive toward their childhood dreams of Olympic gold. They are on the world stage with the chance to be the very best. They have the support of a whole nation behind them. It must be an awesome experience to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies as well.
I visited the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado for four days in August this past summer for the F.L.A.M.E. (Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere) program. I don’t really know what it was, but I felt an immense feeling of inspiration, greatness, and national pride there. I got the opportunity to stay in dorms and be around some our nation’s best athletes.
Walking among all the statues and photos of past U.S. greats was truly amazing. To cap off the week, all of the program’s college participants ran a short Olympic torch relay that finished with us lighting the cauldron on top of one of the center’s buildings. I’ll never forget my time there.
Before I left, I got a shirt that says the Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, which means “Faster, Higher, Stronger” in Latin. Very inspirational words from a very inspirational place.
Yesterday, I read a news article about a man who’s decided that money, lots of it, is the source of his unhappiness.
Can money buy happiness? Apparently not, at least in this case.
Austrian businessman Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune. He is selling off all of his properties and intends to end up with “absolutely nothing” left. Rabeder will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck. All of his riches will be donated to charities he set up in Central and Latin America.
This is a rather extreme story, but I think the man is doing the right thing. He’s experienced a life that has not made him happy, so he’s making a change. You certainly can’t fault him for taking action. Life is far too short to waste by remaining complacent.
Rabeder realized that the luxurious life just wasn’t for him. But he said he did not judge those who chose to keep their wealth. “I do not have the right to give any other person advice. I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul.”
I think the most important thing in life is to follow your heart.
My favorite quote: “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
Ate an apple just now, and it reminded me of a poem I wrote in August 2009.
An Apple Identity Crisis
By Stanley Quan
I know I’m an apple,
But don’t know what type.
I really must know
So I can live up to the hype.
As I hang high above,
In my golden shine,
I wonder if my name
Comes prefixed with a “pine.”
My mother was very large,
Always happy and sweet.
But my size is medium,
Or perhaps even petite.
My skin is kind of rough,
Maybe some spikes growing out.
Is this my ripened future
Or what adolescence is about?
I blush a reddish tint.
Or is it yellow that I flout?
The color of my skin
Only expands my doubt
Just give me the what,
I don’t care for the why,
“Someone please tell me
What apple am I?!”
Then all of a sudden,
Out of the blue,
Through the air,
Soft words flew:
“You put a twinkle in my eye,”
A blushing red delicious replied.
My mouth gaped frozen,
Words unable to start.
Those simple words
Melted my heart
And just like that,
Without further babble,
I knew I was
A juicy, red apple.
Yesterday, I read a New York Times article entitled Haiti Hospital’s Fight Against TB Falls to One Man. It was about a man in Haiti named Pierre-Louis Monfort who is heroically keeping his medical clinic running amidst the chaos from the recent earthquake disaster. He is running the clinic alone because all of the hospital’s 50 other nurses and 20 doctors died in the earthquake or have refused to return to work out of fear for the building’s safety or preoccupation with their own problems. Monfort’s official position was a staff nurse before the earthquake hit.
Despite having to live on the streets with his wife and three children after their home was destroyed by the earthquake, Monfort continues to work tirelessly to help others. Read the end of the article to hear his answer to a patient’s question of “Why don’t you just leave us to die?”
It’s really amazing to me when I hear about people who are willing to sacrifice so much to help others in need. It’s hard to imagine how tough the choices Monfort must make really are. He has a family that is now homeless and plenty of his own problems to deal with, yet he chooses to put in 14 hours of unpaid work everyday trying to save dying TB patients. In the midst of chaos and devastating odds, heroes continue to put their best foot forward to do the right thing. To me, Pierre-Louis Monfort is a hero.
Photo by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)