What a setting! From a distance, Rio de Janeiro is as beautiful a city as the eye can grasp and the mind can assimilate. The shoreline, the beaches, and the atmosphere of goodwill all come together to greet 11,551 athletes in 306 competitive events across 28 different sports. The joy of watching these young men and women from around the world, each in peak physical form, compete in their individual or team events is a marvel to behold in a world that otherwise speaks a very different mood and tells us of a different sentimentality. But for 16 glorious days we manage to set aside economic, social, racial, and political differences while the youth of the world take center stage to show us that excellence, itself, is a worthy pursuit, and there is more in giving than in taking. This event is a glory to sport, an elevation to the human spirit, and a larger tribute to the good that we can do. Even the outstretched arms of Christ the Redeemer cast a permanent welcoming and calm on these games and on this special place. 

But when the games are over, as we each go our separate ways, it is fair to ask “have we nudged the fragile arm of peace and goodwill an equal and corresponding degree to that of the new records set by the athletes?”  It is an age old question that only time and future generations can answer.  That is because true progress in human conduct is measured in blood, sweat, and tears—in heartbeats, and gasps, and by the agony of defeat.  Change also requires that we first acknowledge the need; otherwise, we find ourselves back in the same old ruts, doing the same old things, while the need goes on. 

Those of us who have traveled life’s weary road and are on the downward slope know a little about the exuberance and the idealism of youth.  Personally, I love it.  It helps to propel me onward into the head winds of defeatism, and ignorance, and greed.  And we know that somewhere between the innocence of youth and the intransigence of those who seek protection from it lays the real terrain where life’s enduring battles are won and lost.  It is a long and cluttered field filled with obstacles at every turn.  Only by recording more wins than losses can we ever expect to see change occur—not for us, and probably not for the next generation or the next.  But win we must.  

Every hour, this world sees 2.37 births for every death.  It is a ratio that argues for the ultimate victory of good over evil, and for a humanity that can capture the gold medal in the pursuit of justice.  Still, I am not prepared to hand over the torch of progress to anyone—young or old—as long as I have the ability to think, the will to make my voice heard, and the courage of my convictions.  But today, I thank the youth of the world, who, in their finest hour, have given me that needed lift so that I can see a bit farther, and I, too, can cross the finish line knowing that I arrived there with nothing left to give.