With the Olympic games less than a month away, I got thinking about the Olympic Torch relay today. Imagine my surprise when I realized the ceremony actually took place back in April and the torch has been slowly making it's way towards Paris, France for the summer games.
It was actually lit back on April 16th to be exact.
Who knew!
Right now it is traveling through the towns of Mulhouse, Huningue, Colmar, and Marckolsheim in France. I'll be honest. I had to look up those towns to be sure they were actually in France and not some other part of Europe. I am usually pretty good with geography, but things get a little dodgy once we leave the US borders!
It's still pretty impressive that they follow all the pomp and circumstance of the torch as it travels around the world. I don't know as though I would go out of my way to go watch someone carry it if it were to come through Michigan.
It's also interesting how the torch itself has evolved even since I was a little kid. It looks kind of futuristic these days if you ever get a chance to see a photo of it. I would share one myself, but I really don't want to break any copyright laws or anything like that. More people really need to heed stuff like that here on Hive, but I digress.
If you get a chance to see some of the places the torch has been, you should really do that. They actually make quite a big production of it. Perhaps if they took that money and actually put it into the facilities that they are throwing up in a short amount of time, they might still be standing in 5+ years.
I saw a story the other day that they still aren't sure the Seine is going to be clean enough for the swimmers to actually do their thing when the time comes. I don't know about you, but if I were one of those swimmers I think the uncertainty would scare me more than anything.
Just think about it, if we get to a week before the races and they finally say "hey, it's okay", you know they don't really know if it is okay. They just know it's too late to back track or come up with some other option.
I know I am being overly critical, it probably won't be the last time over the next couple of months, but I find it interesting how the games have kind of lost their luster since I have gotten older. I guess that sort of thing happens when you grow up, you start to see through the facade and realize nothing is idyllic as you once thought.
It doesn't really matter though, the torch is a somewhat eternal thing and whether we care or not, it's making it's way across France as we speak before finally settling in Paris.
Are you ready?
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