Even though the International Olympic Committee maintains the games aren’t meant to be political, throughout history governments, contestants and the public have used the Olympics to protest, boycott and make statements.
Athletes (and winners) Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico City Olympics in October 1968. Standing on the podium, heads bowed, they wore black socks with no shoes; Smith wore a black scarf around his neck, Carlos a beaded necklace to symbolise the lynchings of Black Americans (at the time, the Civil Rights movement was at its peak). As the US national anthem played, they each raised a black-gloved fist in silent protest. In response, the US Olympic committee kicked them off the team and sent them back to America.
Watching Season 5 of Fargo. I have a soft spot for Minnesota, I have family there and have been visiting since 1993, winters there really do feel tundra-like. That’s besides the point though: this show/new season, they keep upping it somehow! Purposely didn’t link to trailer, too many spoilers, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Just a bear, gazing at the vista and contemplating life: aka enjoying me-time.
Remember that TikTok viral debate asking women if they’d choose between a man or a bear if they were stranded in a forest. By all accounts most women chose the bear. Well, it turns out bears have a keen sense of beauty? And a penchant for solitude? Many people have witnessed bears partaking in unusual behaviour/sitting in one place staring at scenic lakes, mountains, sunsets for hours, apparently doing nothing. There is very little explanation…except in theorizing that the bears merely find such views to be beautiful. As for man vs bear: here’s a chilling story of a woman who literally found herself in the wild and chose otherwise.
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (contested) at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Auden wrote his famous poem in December 1938, a time of great political violence. I’ve been thinking about this poem in today’s context, our mundane lives—(‘someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along’; ‘dogs go on with their doggy life’)— continuing in the midst of excruciating human suffering. The sun rises, it sets, while in another part of the world, someone’s entire universe is extinguished.
Musée des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
