Hi How Are You Today

So I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. At first I was a little torn. Was it slow? Was it boring? Where was the flashiness? Where was the pomp? And then it settled in me. Thats not us. Thats not Canada. We're not flashy. We're not all pomp and circumstance.

Our pomp and circumstance came in a different form. It came in the form of storytelling. Of history. Of respecting the land that we're on. When the four first nations group came dancing in I thought "thats not alot of people" but then they kept coming. And then the First Nations of the Prairies came in in their headdresses and their hoops and they knocked the socks off of the other ones that came out. The ceremonies was alot of that for me. Thinking huh, thats not that spectacular. And then the realizatin that wow, that really WAS spectacular. In a creative and thoughtful and very Canadian way.

When Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams sang I thought, meh, a little kitschy. But then I thought, Bryan Adams has been a solid and proud Canadian forEVER. And when Sarah McLauglin sang next I thought well THATS more like it. When the dancers on stage were dancing I thought who can really SEE them? And then I realized, I can see them. And thats enough.

But the true start of the ceremonies for me? The part that I'm sure resonated with the younger viewers? When the fiddlers and tappers came out in their plaids and fishnets and leathers and mohawks and they Ripped. It. Up. I watched it, loving it, but thinking wow, why would they leave Ashley MacIsaac out of THIS? And then voila. There he is. His four minutes of playing unfortunately outshined the SHIT out of the other players but OH MY GOD was he fantastic.

And then, the barefooted voice of a thousand singers in one body came out and she FILLED the stadium with magic. The sea of lights, just a piano, and one woman. KD Lang sang that song at the Juno's a few years ago. And I thought wow, thats the best thing I've ever heard. And then she did it last night. And yes, it was even better. Hard to imagine. But so, so true.

But the biggest surprise? The spoken word poet rapper type guy. I don't remember his name but holy smokes he NAILED IT. He said everything about Canada that any proud Canadian has ever said or wanted to say. He made Canada sound like the best place in the world to live, and it IS. He brought truth to the things that other people used to make fun of us for. And he said it in a way like it all just came to him, right in that moment, with the rythym and flow of something that had been practiced for months but the delivery of a proud and patriotic spokesperson.

The glitches at the end? Unfortunate but hey, what can you do? We're Canadian, I'm sure we're apologizing for it all over the world.