Mar 02 2010
The “Plympics” (as Brad calls them)
Every two years, our household experiences a 2-week window of extreme “country rivalry” and competitive comments made about anything and everything we can think of to make our own native homelands sound, look or seem better. This year’s winter Olympics was no different. During the opening ceremonies, while I was utterly embarrassed by the horrible color choices and outfits of the German athletes making their way into the stadium (seriously?!?!??!), Brad suggested we have a bet on total medal count at the end of the games. Thinking that I should have a fairly decent shot, considering that winter sports are a major past-time of many Germans, I took the bet and announced my reward to be a week’s worth of back massages from Brad. Brad ended up never coming up with what his prize should be in the case he won, but we immediately started tracking the daily metal counts, poking fun of each other and cringing every time the others’ country won. Well, for those of you who followed the games, you now know that I lost. It’s disappointing yes, but then again, considering how much larger this country is in both population and space, not sure it was a fair bet to take on after all.
More importantly that our bet though, I wanted to write this post to say a few things about “national pride” and what these Olympics once again reminded me of. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am deeply ashamed by my country’s history and tend to avoid the topic of our past as much as I can. I don’t even watch movies that have to do with our history, the Nazi regime or the wars – I by no means want to push what we did under the rug or believe that we shouldn’t learn from those mistakes, but continuing to bring it to the forefront through movies or tv shows, I simply can’t bring myself to support those efforts. At the same time of feeling this guilt, I am also quite protective and proud of the great accomplishments in science, technology and environmental advances we’ve made. I have not and don’t ever plan to give up my German citizenship. I speak to my daughter in German and am committed to not only teaching her the language but also about its culture and traditions. I plan on taking her for visits as often as feasible to stay connected with her German relatives and experience the country first-hand. She has a German (and American) passport.
“National pride” is something that most Germans today don’t feel or ever show. We know better. We simply can’t. You would be hard pressed to find a German flag, t-shirt or coffee mug with the German flag on it (even as a souvenir). Watching the German athletes these past 18 days however – seeing how they came together as a team, as a competitor, as a country – I couldn’t help but feel excited for them; to feel like their hard work put into excelling at their craft was ok to be shown to the world and it was ok to cheer them on and maybe even be proud of. I can’t help where I was born. I can’t change the past. I have wonderful parents who taught me to see the good in everyone, to forgive mistakes and to focus on what each of us can do to make this world better. I try to live with one foot planted firmly in where I come from, not ever forgetting that part of my upbringing and how that’s made me who I am today, but also with one foot in the future where I have the opportunity to make good choices, raise thoughtful & caring individuals and find a way to have a positive impact.
So, to wrap up – congrats to the US for winning the medal count. Congrats to Canada for putting on a fabulous Olympics. And Congrats to all athletes who worked incredibly hard to even make it to this level of competition – medal or not, your dedication and commitment to being the best you can be is certainly an inspiration to me.
Tina, I really love reading your blogs, getting the “german-american” view of topics.
But i have to correct you in one point: “National pride” is rising in germany as well.
I remember how surprised i was when i firstly saw all the american flags infront of houses, watched students saying the pledge of allegiance everyday in school etc.
This totally didnt fit to how i grew up. I remember how Fabi and I once got a german flag. Since we were still little, we took it outside and were running around the neighborhood with this great new toy. That night my Mom took it away from us and the next morning she gave us a flag of the European Union because she was afraid that the neightbors would think we are Nazis.
But, it started changing in 2006 with the World Championship in soccer being in germany and with the german team doing really well. It took a sport to unite a nation and once show their pride. During that time you saw tons of german flags, in the front yards, in cars, in trees…
)
After the championship was over one after the other took down the flag, but I think its just a matter of time that Germans will be proud again of being German. (at least if the government doesnt screw up the whole country… but thats something else