Changing Hawaii
By Diane Yukihiro Chang
Monday, July 22, 1996
The Olympics can teach
lessons about life
ON Wednesday, when TWA Flight 800 mysteriously exploded over the Atlantic, the catastrophe hit Hawaii residents especially hard. Maybe we didn't personally know any of the 230 Paris-bound travelers winging out of New York. But for those of us on this volcanic rock, paradise or not, the ubiquitous jet plane is our lifeline to the world.
So we huddled around TV sets and devoured newspapers, closely following the retrieval of body parts from the water and official investigators deflecting questions of bomb vs. accident.
And we were scared.
Thank goodness, two days later came a diversion - the 26th Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. If there was ever a need for this once-every-four-years event, now was the time. The excitement, pageantry and competitive spirit managed to shift the spotlight from a morbid tragedy to a thrilling quest for athletic excellence.
Only insufferable cynics couldn't get caught up in the hoopla. Know why? The Olympics is really a microcosm of that bigger contest known as the struggle for existence.
- In group sports, goals can be more easily scored if individual achievements are sacrificed in favor of well-planned, well-executed teamwork.
- No matter where they go, citizens are inevitably deemed to be ambassadors of their native lands or states. Therefore, those who were born and raised in Hawaii will always represent their home - and whether they do nice or nasty will similarly reflect on it.
- People are never too old, young, poor, sickly, injured or whatever to succeed if they work hard and believe in themselves.
- Pain is meaningless when principle is at stake.
- Kids who think the daily grind of education is boring should look at the daily mental, physical, spiritual and emotional torture endured by world-class athletes.
- The best way to stretch your limits is to match skills with those who are as good or superior. Therefore, hang around contenders who inspire and deserve emulation.
- Most participants gearing up for a big race just want to get it over with; conversely, the victors want to win.
- Even if you don't garner a medal at the Olympics - or excel all the time in life - the thrill is that you get to compete at all.
- If at first you don't succeed, try again in four years!
THE vast majority of earthlings will never see the inside of the Olympic Village. We mere mortals must be content to live vicariously through the media reports of these historic games.
And that's OK, because the bread-and-butter of this planet - known as average, everyday folks - have a tremendous advantage over Olympic athletes who train relentlessly for years to test themselves during a brief moment in time.
For most of us, our moment in time is EVERY moment. Thus it's not too schmaltzy to say make each day count. The 230 passengers and crew members of TWA Flight 800, may they rest in peace, can attest to that.
As for the risk and danger of flying, there's no sense obsessing over it. The chances of a commercial aircraft blowing apart in mid-flight is about the same as winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
That's the way it should be.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.