Choose your Olympic moments

I was scrolling through the pictures on my telephone the other day when I came across a short video I had made several years prior. The video was of my daughter Lilli, when she was merely one and a half years old. Although I will not get into great detail about the background of the videos content, I will provide our readers with a short synopsis to give you a glimpse into this powerful image.

You see, at the time the video was made, Lilli’s life had been uprooted beyond belief and everything, other than her younger sister, that she knew as stability, safety and life had come crashing down as she was uprooted and placed in a situation foreign to her due to a tragedy. While standing in my wife and I’s home, Lilli and hung out while my wife was tending to her little shop in town.

As I finished cleaning the dishes, I turned and couldn’t help but pull out my phone, an action my children have come to disdain. I began videoing her. Dressed in a cute blue nightgown, Lilli was tagging along exhibiting remarkable behavior. As I directed Lilli to smile she simply reached upward with her hand, unwilling to voice a word, seemingly asking for nothing other than a little help into my arms. Dropping my camera immediately, I obliged the child and all was well with the world, for both of us, as we danced around the kitchen.

Watching the video now, thinking about everything that had transpired over the span of a week when the video was made, seems to take on two very similar yet different meanings. First, one can see the outreaches hands of one in need. Lilli simply needed comfort and reassurance. Secondly, one can see, from the video, Lilli’s Olympic moment of overcoming.

When I describe an Olympic moment I do not refer to the Olympic sporting events most of us have come to love and honor but that of the sister ship to the Titanic, the RMS Olympic and a correlation I had heard about prior. The ocean liner Olympic had a long career spanning between 1911 and 1935. Prior to the Titanic she was the largest passenger liner with many of the world’s greatest amenities for her time. Not unlike the Titanic, she was faced with multiple hardships,including collisions, war, attacks and explosions. The disasters and changes experienced by the Olympia caused her to correct her course and overcome, numerous times, in order to succeed in a manner the Titanic was unable to.

May we ever be cognizant of the importance of being there for our fellow citizens, showing a willingness to recognize that extended hand of need, and subsequently extending your own to grab hold and lift others up. As we face the darkness and have to determine if they will become Titanic or Olympic moments, my only hope is that I can face them as Lilli has, not seeing them as absolute failures, with no hope of succeeding, but as Olympic possibilities.

This week, my hero is all those, throughout our community who have face those Titanic moments and rather than allowing the circumstances to cause them to sink, changed course and turned their Titanic moments into Olympic moments. You are my hero.

Richard J. Stephens lives in Carter County and is the father of three little ladies ranging in age from eight to 29.