Watching the Winter Olympics on tv the other night, the realization came to me that my high school student body in California was known as the "Olympians." I don't think I ever connected in those days with what that symbolized or put it into my life in any practical way. From the Internet goggling I came up this information, which is far more than I ever knew when I was high school age back in the 1950s. The Olympians are a group of 12 gods who ruled after the overthow of the Titans. All the Olympians are related in some way. They are named after their dwelling place Mount Olympus: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus. For all the college courses I've taken, I never did study Greek mythology that I remember. Although I now enjoy learning about history, when a young teen it was BORING.
Fast forwarding to modern day times, what does it mean to be an OLYMPIAN? Perhaps to be focused on improving one's self and EXCELLING in a chosen area-be it homemaking, teaching, genealogy, blogging, cooking, parenting or a specific subject, art or sports area. The part about the Olympics of today that I dislike the most is the COMPETITION with others rather than with just yourself. Why can't everyone who participates and does their best be called a WINNER instead of being judged by mili-seconds to beat some one else's record or be a LOSER. We all need to give our best EFFORTS.
Interesting info on the Olympic flag from Wikepedia...The Olympic symbol, better known as the Olympic rings, consists of five intertwined rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents (considering North and South America as a single continent). The colored version of the rings—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—over a white field forms the Olympic flag. These colors were chosen because every nation had at least one of them on its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914 but flown for the first time only at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. It has since been hoisted during each celebration of the Games.