NOTE

As I continue to work on things away from this blog (which is a collection of Free-Time/Casual Online Writing, Remarks, And Notes By ME Whelan) and continue to figure out what goes and what stays of my existing online-writing, the de-emphasizing of one or another continues as well....

Monday, June 1, 2015

Of Favorite Olympic Sports and Personal Growth


February 23, 2014 When Olympics time rolls around again, and whether it's Summer or Winter Olympics; how much of any of the games I watch, get to watch, or am in the mood to watch can depend on a lot of things in my own life. I suppose, too, it depends on how many other Olympics I've seen as the four-year time periods between each Olympics have added up as my own years have added up.
(Or maybe I should say, "my own adult years..." because I never paid much attention to the Olympics at all when I was a kid or teen.

In any case, I've always had my favorite sports over the sports that I really don't want to watch at all. For the most part - and Summer or Winter - none of those favorites has changed. Among my favorite Winter games has always been figure skating; but with those particular events it almost hasn't even been just who wins "Gold" etc., but the additional, more artistic, element of figure skating as well. So, I don't know... It's just kind of seemed to me like figure skating was "its own thing", even though it has also clearly been a matter of skill, athleticism, etc. too.

Somewhere over the course of recent times I just kind of felt like I'd "O.D'd" on figure skating; and not particularly because of the Olympics, but maybe because of some kind of saturation in figure-skating between Olympics. Either way, I just kind of got sick of it. Then again, had I had the opportunity or been in the mood, I would have watched at least some of the figure-skating events. I don't hate figure skating, by any means. I just kind of don't care one way or another any more.

This year (and maybe this is my Winter-blahs mood or other generally "blah-ish" mood at times) I found myself more attracted to the snow sports. There is something about the fresh-air look, clean snow, and blue skies combined with the kind of action/skill involved in those sports, that is (besides the skill) just seems so fresh and clean and alive (and the colorful clothing worn just adds to the aliveness of the whole thing).

What I don't know is whether we get to "a certain age" (whatever that age may be) and just kind of get sick of some of the things we've always seen as our "favorites" (whether it's with regard to the Olympics or anything else); and decide to start to notice some of the nicer things about the stuff we once took for granted or had no interest in - or, whether we get to that "certain age" and decide to seek out only the absolute nicest/best of a broader "range of everything". (Then, again, though, I've always thought I'm pretty open-minded and well rounded and generally enjoy "only the nicest aspects" of the things I find "the best.)

Then again, I don't know if some of the things that were once our favorites lose some of the qualities they once had, not because of what mood we're in or what we prefer - but, instead, because they either become more common, more cheapened, more commercialized, or just "more anything" that they once were.

Maybe I'll never know, but one thing I've discovered for certain is that we may think we're pretty set in our ways once we're "x years" into, say, middle age; and apparently, no matter how "set in our ways" we may think we are, it turns out there's a good chance we're just not as "established" in our preferences as we thought we were.

Image: ME Whelan

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