The flame burnt out, the song is over, but the music (and spirit?) will live forever!

After 16 days of glorious competition among more than 200 nations, we arrived at the closing ceremonies of the 30th Olympiad. The show involved some 4,000 performers, most of whom were volunteers, and it came with the title of "A Symphony of British Music" which was surely guaranteed to get the nostalgia meter trembling with anticipation. 

I am not going to comment on who won what, or how the various countries stacked up, other than to say that the host nation accounted itself very well, obtaining 29 gold medals out of a total of 65 medals won. It is never a good thing when the host nation performs badly, not least in this case due to lack of initial public support for an event that ended up costing twice the predicted amount, coming in with a nine billion pounds ($14.2 billion) price tag. The very respectable medal count is expected to assuage the resentment evident on the streets of London prior to the games, due to the state of the British economy. 

Now if there's one thing that the UK deserves gold for every time, it is popular music. Yes, I am biased, but that doesn't make me any less correct! There is nowhere in the world that can compete with the sheer originality, style and class of the rock and pop that emanates from British shores out and around the globe. London Calling, indeed!

Bohemian Rhapsody. Imagine. Freedom. Pinball Wizard. Ziggy Stardust. Wish You Were Here. I Am The Walrus. You Should Be Dancing. Wonderwall. We Will Rock You. My Generation. 

There's not even the need to mention the names of the artists responsible, as these songs are so ubiquitously heard and revered around the world. Anyone who claims not to know at least half of these songs never mind who sang them, is just someone disconnected from this world and/or is the total opposite of "cool" and "hip". That is true whether the excuse is either "too young" or "too old"! 

I reserve a very special spot for one artist and one song which is as uniquely British as anything else that was heard, and should serve as a real reminder to young/aspiring artists about what great songs and great musicianship and musical greatness are all about. I am referring to none other than Waterloo Sunset by Ray Davies/The Kinks. To hear this song with new life breathed into it, and sung so remarkably well by an almost (unbelievably) 70-year-old Davies, was simply spectacular: not for Ray Davies the usual embarrassment of a singer well past their prime pathetically trying to reach notes that now belong only and firmly to their past. He made it sound like he had recorded that song a few weeks ago, and the all-round poignancy of the song mixed in with the occasion at hand left me with a definite lump in my throat.  It was truly moving. 

There are two lingering thoughts on the ending of the Olympiad that remain with me now, as the music begins to fade, the flame is sadly extinguished and life slowly returns to normal for both spectators and (most) athletes alike.  The first is how much the Olympics are a metaphor for life itself: like all the others, this Olympiad has been one of both staggering successes, but also for some, one of staggering failures. There can only be one winner, and one gold medal. After four years of sacrifice and dedicated preparation, fed with sustained passion, there will only ever be one winner and way more losers (in the sports sense of the word, only!) than medal winners.  For every one who achieves major success and glory, there are countless others who only get to taste the bittersweetness of being so close, and yet so far. 

This is often the case in everyday life, whether it's competing with others for a new job, or working on achieving of some other kind of dream. Life is not fair, and there is usually only one winner, and that's the bottom line. All we can do is do everything in our power to stack the odds in our favor, and then give it all one's got on the big day(s). The key is in the never giving up, and the keeping on trying; irrespective of certain failures along the way. For sure, that is what the Olympics represent. 

The second aspect that strikes a chord (!) in me over events such as the Olympiad is how they appear to bring people together, or even seeming to bring a whole nation together, perhaps briefly. Hell, maybe even temporarily bringing entire nations together collectively in one unique atmosphere of communal vision and sense of purpose. There is no question that the event seems to have triggered this phenomenon in the host nation, with the streets of London feeling friendlier than ever, and the whole UK fizzing with national pride and sports fever. 

But there were two key words used in my description of the second aspect: briefly and temporarily. Not long after the music and flames fade, and the stadium and pubs empty, all the banners and hoopla coming down and being packed away, will this apparent new found "spirit" also fade away, and people will retreat into themselves once again. Silently staring over at the person sitting opposite in the subway, or head buried in a book or newspaper to avoid their eyes,  or worse, back to the arguing and fighting with neighbors and colleagues and even family. Even the sporting spirit itself will dissipate, and people who are all British will be back physically fighting among themselves over domestic soccer matches on terraces between teams that are all examples of British athletic brilliance. 

It seems that nations unite (in sport or war) only for brief periods when they are "fighting" other nations, and once those battles are won and lost, nations go back to fighting amongst themselves. If we could only harness some of the positive energy that seeps through events such as the Olympiad, and find a way of sustaining that spirit and positivity beyond the fading music of the closing ceremony, then it all might begin to have even a greater depth of meaning for all concerned. 

But one must take it where one can find it, so for now we are left basking in the afterglow of what was a hugely successful 30th Olympiad that brought many people and nations together in a united front, and even that is such a rare phenomenon these days that we simply must rejoice at the closing of what just transpired, and look forward with much anticipation to Rio in 2016.  The London games of 2012 are dead, long live the games of Rio, 2016!! - Kevin Mc