American Dreams

I've been wondering about the truth of the American dream. I suppose this is the sort of question that one can't really answer in a satisfactory way, and I don't really care enough about it to devote all of characters to the subject, but the olympics are a prime example of this. Skater Johnny Weir was quoted saying that he saw skating on tv as a kid and said that that's what he wanted to do, and now he's in the olympics as the American champion. This is what the american dream is, and this is why NBC runs all those really annoying human interest focus segments on all the athletes from humble beginning and so on and so forth. You see this all the time in national sporting league commentaries too - the Steelers won the superbowl because (among other things) they wanted it more. I won't deny that desire to succeed and focus on that goal is very helpful in a sporting event, or any endeavor one might undertake, but I find it very hard to believe that it's all nurture and not at all nature. They say that Michael Phelps has a body that is particularly suited for swimming which helps predisposition him to win. Without hard training and the motivation to do well I am sure he is still capable of losing, but how much of an edge does that innate characteristic lend him? Is there a particular facet of Weir that allows him to be a better skater than others, no matter the training or desire for victory? No matter how much a little league team really wants to beat the Yankees, it's just never going to happen without an act of god. This is probably just a semantic issue, but it drives me nuts. What they really ought to say is that they take their overpowering desire and use it to enhance their existing physical ability. That may be able to make up the difference of a few tenths of a second or an extra basket or two, but it cannot simply be desire alone. And there are times when the body fails the mind - like when I really want to make a spectacular D in the endzone but my lungs simply can't transfer oxygen well enough to my bloodstream to make that happen. That's something I can train to improve, but I do have my ceiling (barring any blood doping, of course, but I'm much too poor and uninvolved to ever bother with that). We all do. I wonder how many of the athletes who come away with a silver, or bronze, or nothing at all honestly mean the drivel they pour out to sympathetic newscasters (I did my best and really it's just an honor to be competing here, so I'm very happy with my performance today). Why not admit your inner pissed-offed-ness (if only I'd cut that one turn a tiny bit tighter I would have won; If they planed the ice more often my skate wouldn't have tripped me up in that straightaway) if it's the truth? The aura of sportsmanship is fundamental to our understanding of the dream, I suppose, and the athletes have bought into it enough themselves that they don't want burst the illusion for us or for themselves. Is this then an even greater example of their disciplined selflessness? Tune in to NBC for regular updates in the next few days - I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to find out.