Faster, Higher, Stronger...

Recently, the Olympic games were on. Apparently. I don't really watch them. I'm not much of a sports fan, personally. I know, shock horror, Brendan James Raymond not a sporty person....
I like running, OK? And soccer. Doing them, that is, not watching them. I don't like watching sport at all, really. Those two I like doing in and of themselves (recently, Muggle Quidditch/wheelchair variant has also been good), and any other sports I'll typically just do for the company of the people I'm doing it with. Though I will still get into it somewhat.

But anyway. As you may (or may not) know, the Olympic motto is "Faster, Higher, Stronger." The original is actually Latin, but you know. Most people don't know Latin, for some strange reason...
But anyway, that's been the motto of the Olympics for a while now. A few decades or something. And it suits the Olympics, to a degree. Though personally I prefer their second one, which I'll mention at the end.

Though it does seem oftentimes as though this is the motto of the world, really. Faster, higher, stronger. Be faster, aim higher, get stronger. I don't do any of those.

Faster. I'm characteristically slow. Both in the fact that I actually am slow, and in the fact that I have little interest in increasing my speed. (Not so much applying to running. That's different - and I often don't run just to get from A to B fast, but because I like to.) A point which I'm often reminded of at work. Without fail, if I'm doing the washing up, the other kitchen hand on with me will relieve me after very long. Because I'm going too slowly and it's piling up. They will then proceed to finish it in half an hour. Not much exaggeration, really. It was a similar story when I did distribution. And when I do get faster, as I've mentioned, I can be somewhat clumsy. Also occurs with my speech, not good at speaking fast, or without thinking on what I'll be saying beforehand.
And even if you think in mind, rather than body - I'm not that quick a thinker. I'm a good thinker, but I often like to mull things over a bit rather than just get straight to it. Sometimes I can get it fairly quickly, but not like the real quick thinkers can.

Higher. I'm not much of a one for setting goals. At all. I don't aim for the sky. Generally speaking, I'm often fairly happy with where I am with a lot of things. Not all things, but a lot of things. There are some things I'm working on, as I've mentioned in previous posts. But often, I don't really set particular goals for them. Just generally...not where it is now. I'm not that specific about it. And also, because I know that I can fail with things now and then (sometimes a lot), sometimes I'll expect myself to do badly or fail - so that if I do, it won't be so bad, and if I do better, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Stronger. I'm not strong in body. I never go to the gym - well, I went once, when a hotel I was staying at had one. I went on a stair machine for a while. I mean, I'm fit-ish. I do stuff like running, Tae Kwon Do, Kung-Fu, whatever. But I'm not strong. Most people can beat me at an arm wrestle. I'm quite skinny/gangly. I can't see to well without my glasses. I would not last long in a fight, most likely. (Not a circumstance I particularly want to imagine.)
Though, fair enough, I'm fairly strong in mind. I have been somewhat gifted there, and for that I am quite thankful.

So, if you take each of these, just in their main sense, mostly thinking about body - I fail fairly dismally. Even if it's in mind, I'm just OK. But then, think about heart/soul. However you want to say it. Faster - I'm fast to love, care and befriend people, not to judge them. Higher - though sometimes I can expect the worst, I always hope for the best (well, what I see as the best, anyway). Stronger - I'm very strong-willed (*cough* stubborn *cough*), and strong-hearted. If I call you a friend, that doesn't change. Doesn't matter if I haven't seen you in five minutes, five hours, days, weeks, years. If you need an ear, a hand, a shoulder, a hug - I'm there. And, something interesting I've found of late - I can tell the depth of a relationship I'll have with someone from square one, pretty much. I mean, generally, people start off as friends, become good friends, very good friends, then best friends - as soon as I meet someone, I can generally tell which of those they are. And that's how I relate to them - like they're already there. I've met someone just this year that I knew - and have called as such since - was a best friend, pretty much straight away. We just connected really well. (To put it in perspective; including him, I'd say there are three people that I'd call best friends at the moment.) And we've had some really deep discussions, right from the get-go, and it's been great.

So I suppose, the world seems to rank it somewhat like this: body first, then mind, then heart/soul. Some places probably put mind first (China/Japan...just maybe...). I'm thinking more the reverse of that, myself. Heart/soul first, mind second, body last. I think that's a better way to do it, personally.

Oh, and I said I'd tell you the other motto of the Olympics. It's a bit less well known. "The most important thing is not to win but to take part." That's a better motto, I think. And perhaps, given some of their comments, one that the media should be a bit more aware of...