It is amazing to watch the best of people express possibilities of body. At the pinnacle of sport, the binary of winning and losing doesn’t make any sense and really doesn’t matter. The difference between the top few is quite insignificant. If you have done your best, you have done well. This doesn’t mean it is not about participation. You have to perform to your best. Which means best has to be good enough and an expression of collective possibility of human body through strive and excellence in chosen field. People finishing too far from the best are in the wrong place. Watching those in the zone pushing the boundary of possibility is a pleasure to watch. It is amazingly beautiful. I was watching Simone Miles. There was a glitch in the uneven bar, bend knees -just shows human frailty despite amazing capacity, and she slipped in ranking but covered with astounding floor routine (it was anything but routine). Though Andrade and Lee, and few more, were equally good, Miles stood out -she I believe like Beaman, Phelps, Bolt…is once in a lifetime talent. Pushing possibilities, a notch up, for humanity to catch, making the impossible normal, same when a precocious human took a bipedal step, sowed first wild seed to grow food, bold enough to look up at the stars to see a pattern and try to use his/her critical faculties to access speck of vast reality, to see rising water vapor and wonder the possibilities of energy that could drive tons of weight, with searing power of imagination and delicate choice of words “A moment -we uncertain step For the newness of night -Then fit our Vision to the Dark…” shifted the world a little. There are few people who stretch human imagination. Essentially these are not few they are many who work to create framework for this possibility, it's incremental mostly but once in a while, like a mutation, a leap is taken into the unknown for the world to cling to new possibility. So, to class it into binary of winning and losing is futile. It is a celebration of possibilities.
Researchers and epidemiologists have pointed to certain regions in the world for new type of viruses and
bacteria to evolve and cross over to human to trigger pandemic. There are some defining
characteristic to the region, significant being presence of high diversity and intense
channels of exchange of microorganisms. These lead to new possibilities of
microorganism to evolve and spread fast, sometimes leading to such evolution that completely break human immune system. These regions are vibrant with possibilities
of new. I vaguely recall while reading Pearl Buck (I picked from pavement sale)
there was mention on regions in the world with possibilities of new ideas and talent. A region
with diversity, essential openness to thoughts and ideas, and bizarre, these are
essential to abstract pathbreaking novel. Diversity is important ingredient, not
the degrading insipid diversity of religion nor status quo stale traditions (or
the cesspool diversity normalized by word defecating vermins) but vibrancy of thoughts from different races, regions, of world carrying fresh experiences, new
vitality of culture and understanding, and assimilating and creating new possibilities.
Such regions are treasured places for humanity. From ancient times (whether
Egypt or Greece, buddhist centers from India to China to East Asia) to medieval
times (in Europe like Vienna or later Paris) to modern (earlier London to later
NewYork), to point few centers that created such spaces. Libraries did reduce
the distance and time, but it is internet that made space and time meaningless,
it has consolidated collective human mind. The reason why humanity is living in
high possibility of new that was never possible. Novel ideas, original thoughts, unique creative
expressions, travels and ricochets across the world instantly entering more number of
minds than ever before. This with AI -like Alphafold, makes it accessible to
anyone anywhere across the world to take it up. Truly amazing.
**some Indians too have done exceedingly well particularly in shooting, archery and badminton, they may not have converted into medals but are in the zone of excellence, they gave their best and did well, that is what matters. Some faltered not in talent but psychological pressure -which unlike other region of the world carries aspiration of more than billion beleaguered people, so the competitors from China or Korea or US or Australia (to whom they generally lose) have no such mental pressure whatsoever. In this context the performance Manu Bhaker is stupendous, this youngster won two bronze and narrowly missed third. To put it in perspective only two decades back India could manage only one bronze in the entire game! Also note, most Indian participants come from extremely humble background so the expectation from these youngsters must be extraordinarily. Even after performing well, take for instance VijayKumar (silver medal at London Olympics), they are swiftly sidelined by mediocrity thriving careless system. The despicables in cash fattened Indian army found him wanting. Ideally Neeraj Chopra should show middle finger to Indian Army and quit. He may not realize that he has done more to Indian army than they can ever possibly redeem, it is well past emotional gratitude trap (Also, NDRF must have complete control of disaster management and rescue, and is upgraded into separate force, Army is meant to protect border and not to play savior during floods/landslide).
