purity of the silver

i stayed up last night and finished watching the ice-dancing competition in this winter olympics. i love the winter olympics- sledding and skiing and skating and hockey and curling- i love it. so back to the long program of the ice dancing. at the start of the show, the americans were in second. a chance at winning gold for america after a 3 decade absence of any american medal in this competition. the pair skated beautifully and they won the silver. now compared to first place, second is often sad. i have watched these two weeks as athlete after athlete "show themselves royally" (as my mother used to say to me ) because they didn't get what they wanted or thought they deserved. i watched our woman's snowboarder show-off her way out of a gold medal. observed two speedskaters hate each other on and off the ice- both of them on the american team. i listened as our number one guy singles skater whined about the absence of a hotel, room service and a limo. i watched our number one skier take fifth, sixth, and lower and brag about how cool it was to ski while you were drunk. those kind of representatives of american sports make me almost want to quit watching. but then there are athletes such as our american ice-dancers. they make me forget for a moment what diva-like attitudes have been presented in other arenas and focus on their tears of joy and pride for their country. it may not have been gold, but i saw more work, diligence, humility, gratefulness, honesty, pride, and honor in those beribboned silver rings than i have seen in many of our athletes combined. and therein lies the purity of the silver. congratulations team u.s.a!