Over this last week I have been listening to a series of talks by Brian Swimme and Matthew Fox, entitled ‘Science, Spirituality and the Noosphere: Hope for Humanity’s Future’. While positioning humanity within the whole history of evolution Brian Swimme suggested that human beings, although sharing the same DNA as chimpanzees, are what he called a phylum. By this he means that human beings are of a different class and even species and what makes human beings different from their chimpanzee cousins is imagination and symbolic thinking. There is a restlessness in human beings that wants to explore and develop new ways of being, a restlessness that has potential for future living together in peace and harmony, something the world badly needs.
I had a sense of this truth last evening when I was watching the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games that are taking place in Paris. The organisers and designers of the opening ceremony certainly used their imagination when they set the opening along the banks of the Seine rather than in a stadium and to have the athletes sail down the river in barges to be hailed by the crowds on the banks of the river. The usual entertainment and references to the history and culture of the city and country in which the Games are being held took place in landmarks throughout the city; the Olympic Flag was carried by a rider on a mechanical horse making its way down the Seine; the Olympic Torch was carried underground and over rooftops, brought to its final destination by a number of athletes, setting alight a gigantic cauldron around a hot air balloon that was then hoisted into the air above the city. It was all very dramatic and took place in the pouring rain which didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the athletes, the participants or the spectators. It was an attempt to be different and not everyone liked it. I suspect that it could only be viewed on television screens which must have been placed throughout the city and in the Place du Trocadero where the actual Opening Ceremony was to take place.
I appreciated the attempt to be different and marvelled at the ingenuity of the organisers. There were also many aspects of it that I found moving. The sole rider riding along the Seine on his mechanical horse and the walk to the platform with the Olympic Flag while the athletes carrying flags of their nation followed behind was a symbol of how important and how global the Olympic Games are. But most of all I appreciated the speeches. There were two, apart from the declaration by President Macron that the Games were now officially opened. The first one was given by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, who acknowledged how bold they had been in “doing things that have never been done before, like having this Opening Ceremony in the city, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games.” He put before the athletes and the world a vision of what humanity could be. He said “Even though the Games cannot solve every problem, even though discrimination and conflicts are not about to disappear tonight, you have reminded us how beautiful humanity is when we come together.
And when you return to the Olympic Village, you will be sending a message of hope to the whole world: that there is a place where people of every nationality, every culture and every religion can live together. You’ll be reminding us: it is possible”.
And in the second speech Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee reiterated that vision:
“Dear fellow athletes, this is the pinnacle of your Olympic journey. You have come to Paris as athletes. Now you are Olympians. Stepping into the Olympic Village, you realise like generations of Olympians before: now I am part of something bigger than myself. Now we are part of an event that unites the world in peace.
In our Olympic world, there is no “global south” or “global north”. We all respect the same rules and each other. In our Olympic world, we all belong.
As Olympians, we care for each other. We do not only respect each other; we live in solidarity with each other.
In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight, uniting the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team.
Some may say, we in the Olympic world, we are dreamers. But we are not the only ones.
And our dream is coming true tonight: a reality for everyone to see. Olympians from all around the globe, showing us what greatness we humans are capable of.
So I invite everybody: dream with us. Like the Olympic athletes, be inspired with the joy that only sport can give us. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living life in peace, as the one and only humankind, united in all our diversity.
This is why tonight, with my heart full of emotions, I invite the whole world: let us celebrate this joy of sport together with all the athletes. Have faith in the future. Together, let us celebrate the best of our shared humanity”
What a wonderful vision. We are not all athletes but as human beings we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We have the capacity and the power to live together in peace. Our times need us to exercise that power and capability. Institutions like the United Nations, international meetings of governments, the European Union, are attempts to do this even if they are not always successful. What would it be if at these meetings a vision such as that presented at the Olympic Games was put before the participants, they were asked to declare their belief in it and were called to recollect it by those chairing the meetings? Would that be possible? Would it help us in this journey towards wholeness? Our world is in crisis. The future is in our hands.
I had a sense of this truth last evening when I was watching the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games that are taking place in Paris. The organisers and designers of the opening ceremony certainly used their imagination when they set the opening along the banks of the Seine rather than in a stadium and to have the athletes sail down the river in barges to be hailed by the crowds on the banks of the river. The usual entertainment and references to the history and culture of the city and country in which the Games are being held took place in landmarks throughout the city; the Olympic Flag was carried by a rider on a mechanical horse making its way down the Seine; the Olympic Torch was carried underground and over rooftops, brought to its final destination by a number of athletes, setting alight a gigantic cauldron around a hot air balloon that was then hoisted into the air above the city. It was all very dramatic and took place in the pouring rain which didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the athletes, the participants or the spectators. It was an attempt to be different and not everyone liked it. I suspect that it could only be viewed on television screens which must have been placed throughout the city and in the Place du Trocadero where the actual Opening Ceremony was to take place.
I appreciated the attempt to be different and marvelled at the ingenuity of the organisers. There were also many aspects of it that I found moving. The sole rider riding along the Seine on his mechanical horse and the walk to the platform with the Olympic Flag while the athletes carrying flags of their nation followed behind was a symbol of how important and how global the Olympic Games are. But most of all I appreciated the speeches. There were two, apart from the declaration by President Macron that the Games were now officially opened. The first one was given by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, who acknowledged how bold they had been in “doing things that have never been done before, like having this Opening Ceremony in the city, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games.” He put before the athletes and the world a vision of what humanity could be. He said “Even though the Games cannot solve every problem, even though discrimination and conflicts are not about to disappear tonight, you have reminded us how beautiful humanity is when we come together.
And when you return to the Olympic Village, you will be sending a message of hope to the whole world: that there is a place where people of every nationality, every culture and every religion can live together. You’ll be reminding us: it is possible”.
And in the second speech Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee reiterated that vision:
“Dear fellow athletes, this is the pinnacle of your Olympic journey. You have come to Paris as athletes. Now you are Olympians. Stepping into the Olympic Village, you realise like generations of Olympians before: now I am part of something bigger than myself. Now we are part of an event that unites the world in peace.
In our Olympic world, there is no “global south” or “global north”. We all respect the same rules and each other. In our Olympic world, we all belong.
As Olympians, we care for each other. We do not only respect each other; we live in solidarity with each other.
In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight, uniting the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team.
Some may say, we in the Olympic world, we are dreamers. But we are not the only ones.
And our dream is coming true tonight: a reality for everyone to see. Olympians from all around the globe, showing us what greatness we humans are capable of.
So I invite everybody: dream with us. Like the Olympic athletes, be inspired with the joy that only sport can give us. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living life in peace, as the one and only humankind, united in all our diversity.
This is why tonight, with my heart full of emotions, I invite the whole world: let us celebrate this joy of sport together with all the athletes. Have faith in the future. Together, let us celebrate the best of our shared humanity”
What a wonderful vision. We are not all athletes but as human beings we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We have the capacity and the power to live together in peace. Our times need us to exercise that power and capability. Institutions like the United Nations, international meetings of governments, the European Union, are attempts to do this even if they are not always successful. What would it be if at these meetings a vision such as that presented at the Olympic Games was put before the participants, they were asked to declare their belief in it and were called to recollect it by those chairing the meetings? Would that be possible? Would it help us in this journey towards wholeness? Our world is in crisis. The future is in our hands.
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