Let’s give thanks for show of gratitude

Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of the Olympics has been the rediscovery of the impact of the genuine “thanks and gratitude” as verbalised by the vast majority of the competitors including the medallists. Perhaps this “rediscovery” is the legacy we have been looking for?

The experience of being valued is the gold medal that can be given every day.

Gavin Cargill

St Magdalenes

Linlithgow

Thankfully the juvenile, jingoistic junketing in London, laughingly referred to as “Olympic Games”, is coming to a close.

The “Games”, estimated to cost £13 billion and saturated with British competitors, remind me starkly of the fall of other empires, where, on the brink of collapse, people’s attention was diverted away from reality.

These “Games” have been used by commentators and politicians among others, to criticise Scottish aspirations, for political purposes.

While the bean-counters tally the number of baubles each country collects, participants in the “Better Together” team have been criticised for failing to sing the National Anthem – no-one, of course, asked why.

In this parallel non-Olympian world, no-one has asked how the Games participants, whether athletes, organisers or corporate profiteers will feel about the inevitable deaths of thousands of elderly people this winter through lack of heating and proper nourishment.

Meanwhile, no-one, to my knowledge, has said, or written, one word about how soldiers in Afghanistan are faring while this asinine pretence at sport disappears under the meaningless rhetoric of “legacy”!

Bill McLean

Rosemill Court

Newmills

Dunfermline, Fife

Last year was the summer of riots; this of outstanding Olympic success. Which is representative of the culture of modern Britain?

Blame for the rioting can be directed, among other things at lack of home nurturing, education, self-discipline, faith in a future.

Compare the interviews of successful Olympians and note the typical emphasis on supportive families, encouraging communities, inspiring teachers and coaches whereby aspirants develop their skills and discipline within a vital elite tradition which urges them on to further distinction.

In contrast, consider head teachers speaking about the disastrous influence of celebrity culture where people of no distinction pass on the lessons that success does not need to be based on individual merit of character or genuine effort. And also consider the state of general culture, where vital elements of tradition and faith fail to be passed on, a world in which Dan Brown – author of the Da Vinci Code – is recorded as our “greatest” novelist and in which a mommy-porn novel becomes a best seller.

Sport is not the most important aspect of life, but let us pray our heroic Olympians can remind us that for our culture to be truly inspiring we must revive a world where, faith, the responsible pursuit of excellence, and achievement are encouraged so as to break through an ambience of mediocre materialism.

Alan D Jackson

Ashwood Mews

Bridge of Don

Aberdeen