People who've known me for a while know that keeping up with what's going on in the world isn't my strong point. That might be amusing in view of the fact that I've been employed by news-reporting organizations for most of my working life — which is also part of the explanation, because I’m usually focused on everyday details that need to be taken care of behind the scenes no matter what the actual events are in the outside world. With that background, it's not altogether surprising that I didn't realize the Sydney Olympics had begun until the opening ceremonies were mentioned in a Sunday sermon a couple of days later.

By the following weekend, after more information from written reports, I decided to take a look at what was happening down under. My general policy is to avoid watching television, since sitting in front of a screen is what I do all day anyway, but it was a Friday night, and there was nothing Olympic about my self-discipline.

After Jay Leno checked out ignorance levels about the number of events in a triathlon and the kind of animal used in equestrian competition, I had to admit that I didn't remember what the five Olympic rings represented. Five kinds of sports? No, but a 30-year-old World Book Encyclopedia was plenty new enough to list the five main land masses and to review the Greek origins for a sports spectacle that can be traced back more than 2,700 years.

In response, I decided to summarize five personal impressions from a brief look at the 27th Olympiad and memories of previous competitions.

1. Watching the Olympics is educational in a variety of ways. Here are just a few:  A faraway place on the map becomes more real to me when I see a person from that country compete in a televised event. Background reports add cultural information. We’re challenged to figure out differences in time zones and adjust to seeing distances measured in meters instead of yards. There are opportunities to find out about unfamiliar sports and related terms and strategy. (Really, three weeks ago could you describe water polo?)

2. The Olympics remind me that life is longer than a sporting event. There are both sprints and marathons, of course, but the first race I saw in this year's competition was completed in about 10 seconds. Another took about 20 seconds. If years of training precede a short race, surely perseverance is all the more necessary for the continuing tasks of life, where the ultimate length of the event is unknown, the stakes are higher, and the learning and performing are often intermingled.

3. I like the fact that although we're a society where high technology and low levels of physical activity are typical, we have regard for the Olympics as a special event. Obviously, most of us are distant spectators, exerting ourselves primarily to press buttons on a remote control or a mouse. At least we see that people can be "swifter, higher, stronger," as the Olympic motto indicates. At least we see that there's challenge and joy in taking the human body to a peak performance. If our own peaks are only anthills compared to what a medalist accomplishes, we can still be inspired to try.

4. Relatively few people ever receive Olympic medals, but striving for and reaching some kind of goal, no matter how small, must be a universal experience. At the Olympics, cameras focus on the awards ceremonies, and much is said about what individual athletes go through on the way to their successes. It could very well be that there are no flags, no crowds, no flowers and no music for the most meaningful successes in our own lives, but when we watch the winners as the flags go up, we can share the feelings. Whatever I've really hoped for, worked for, waited for is mixed into my viewing of ceremonies like that. When everything comes together and the desired results are there, it's worth the journey. It is.

5. When Olympic winners are interviewed, they often mention family members, coaches and others whose contributions have been crucial to the success. After viewing this year's coverage for a brief time, I realized that I have a closing acknowledgement, too. A message indicated that the captioning of the broadcasts was sponsored by McDonald's. Without the captions, I would have seen people, names and numbers, but a lot would have been missing. I wouldn’t have known about the explanations of events, the comeback from an injury, the athlete seriously hampered by illness, the young team quickly put together when previous players quit, the role of the grandfather who helped make an 8-year-old’s Olympic dream come true. Thanks for the words.