Olympics

Yesterday the Canadian women’s hockey team won gold at the Olympics. Today the men’s hockey team beat the Americans in the semi-finals. The mail carrier slipped into our office in the midst of the men’s semi-final game, looking for an update.

“How’re we doing?” he asked anxiously.

He didn’t need to say “hello” or to identify whom he meant by “we.” He didn’t need to explain his worried look.

“We’re up by one,” I assured him.

He nodded and then scurried to his next delivery address, where no doubt he’d get another update as the clock ticked down in the third period of the hockey game.

I love how the Olympics–at their best–build a sense of community within countries and between them.

They remind me of sea turtles.

Sea turtles, swimming through the political boundaries of so many different countries, will draw us together if we let them. We see it in our own work, as we track our Canadian sea turtles to nesting beaches in other countries. Rarely does a day go by when my email inbox doesn’t have messages from people in other countries–today, from Colombia, the UK, and the United States.

People working around the world to conserve sea turtles know that we’ll lose these species if we don’t work together. If we don’t give our work our best effort. If we don’t persist in the face of adversity. If we don’t support each other when we’re having trouble.

And we know the importance of celebrating our successes – of keeping our spirits up–of cheering each other on.