friday nite is alright for fighting
homage to elton john

i missed the opening ceremony stage show for the rio olympics but am watching the parade of nations right now.  i find this portion of the olympic opening ceremonies boring as hell and utterly captivating because it is just people on parade but these are people from lots of different countries, large and tiny.  i read in a travel essay recently that people are the same all over the world but cultures are different.  culture is a collection of habit, ceremony, belief structure and stories.  cultures are protean, mercurial even.  they change over time, our stories adapt to the eras we live in.  they are created by us, as we are created by our stories.  i'm watching the parade of nations in rio at the start of the 31st olympiad not because i'm a fan of sports but because i'm a citizen of the world and the olympiad is one of the few forums where we all come together and discover again our stories, our essential human being.