I don’t watch the winter Olympics – or much of the summer ones either, for that matter. Not out of any ethical objection, it’s great that there are magnificent young people out there making magnificent use of their bodies and their equipment, but I have other things to do. As opposed to my dear Aunt Do, who at nearly 98 spends much of her day watching young athletes exert themselves.

But this – I just watched Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s ice dancing gold medal performance online, and then a tribute to them through the years, to the music of my beloved Jim Cuddy, and – of course – wept. The lives of these two are unimaginable. They say they are “not a couple,” and yet they must have spent countless hours together, since childhood, learning everything about each other’s bodies and minds – more intimate, trusting, and connected than any married couple. Deeply moving. Ours.

Great artists make what they do look easy.

Especially joyful to watch as we in Canada stomp through February; everybody is sick or fighting a cold – as am I – and tired of ice and bleakness. But then, there’s this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmjsZLyn4aI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T_dqPeAZKg

Just heard a radio interview with an American who was on one of the planes that landed at Gander on 9/11 – his character appears in “Come from away,” which has just opened here in Toronto and is still a smash hit in New York. He told the interviewer that he, a hapless American refugee, was so impressed with the people of Newfoundland, their incredible generosity and kindness, that when he got home, he changed his life, sold his business in Austin, Texas, and is now working full-time for the good of refugees everywhere.

As we read about the right-wing press doing their best to destroy the passionate, self-possessed, articulate, formidable student survivors of the latest U.S. massacre, and as another cold, dank February day winds down, it’s good to be reminded of just how fabulous human beings can be.