{"id":16315,"date":"2016-08-06T02:30:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T02:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16315"},"modified":"2016-08-06T02:52:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T02:52:22","slug":"olympic-splendor-always-provides-chills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16315","title":{"rendered":"Olympic splendor always provides chills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/greeks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-16316\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/greeks-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"greeks\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/greeks-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/greeks.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this very moment, I am watching the parade of nations at the start of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve written already about how I&#8217;m a sucker for pageantry.<\/p>\n<p>The Olympics&#8217; opening ceremony always fills me with pride.<\/p>\n<p>Sure enough, I enjoyed watching the Americans march into the stadium. I always enjoy the Greek Olympic team lead the parade per the custom, given that the Olympics originated in Greece in 776 B.C.; it also fills me with pride in my own Greek heritage to see them lead the thousands of other athletes onto the stadium floor.<\/p>\n<p>The Rio games have been beset with questions, trouble and the potential for disaster. The world&#8217;s sincere hope is that the Brazilians conduct an Olympics that will make them proud.<\/p>\n<p>Given that this is the first Olympics ever held in\u00a0South America, I&#8217;m betting the Brazilians are up to the task.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also an unfettered idealist. I always hope &#8212; and occasionally expect &#8212; the best. The Rio Olympic planners have everything in the world at stake here. The images I&#8217;ve seen of the host city are spectacular in the extreme. Then again, all host cities make sure they show off their best when the world comes calling.<\/p>\n<p>Worries about Zika, terrorism, contaminated water and filthy streets all are legitimate concerns for the Brazilians.<\/p>\n<p>I am aware that the Olympic spirit alone won&#8217;t protect the competitors from harm. A good bit prayer and good karma, though, well might do the trick.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll be sending them all plenty of both for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this very moment, I am watching the parade of nations at the start of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. I&#8217;ve written already about how I&#8217;m a sucker for pageantry. The Olympics&#8217; opening ceremony always fills me with pride. Sure enough, I enjoyed watching the Americans march into the stadium. I always enjoy &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16315\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Olympic splendor always provides chills<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[6463,3960,6466,4562,6464,6465],"class_list":["post-16315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","category-sports-news","tag-ancient-olympics","tag-rio-olympics","tag-summer-olympics","tag-terrorism","tag-u-s-olympic-team","tag-zika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16318,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16315\/revisions\/16318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}