Up and Over to the Other Side

1972 Munich Olympics souvenir.
P. Ferguson image. August 2022.

Porcelain and Rubber. Between 5 and 6.

You’re taking up the track for that? the uninterested voice asked.

Why the Track?

The day’s plan…a return so to speak to UVIC’s Centennial Stadium. In my steps I ask when did I last run here…though my joy at that time was distance…up and over Mt. Tolmie to the other side. Today though I need symbolic background, connection to summer sports, participation with intended and implied connection. Something extant in 1972…perhaps a reckoning…a place of gathering – not of the event but a cousin to sports. The image…to be much more than pretty pictures, more than landscapes, more than a plate in a curio at home. Olympiad XX (August 26 – September 11) takes this writer to 1972…and that one picture…embedded for all time…a solo masked man of the Munich Massacre (September 5-6).

Embedded for all time…*The Daily Colonist,* September 6, 1972.

For some while I waited to re-watch Spielberg’s Munich (2005)…and in the watching I become reminded it is near 50 years. Perhaps remiss of me to take my words to a new vista away from the tragedy to words written of the film Munich and its representations. One finds Munich’s ending with its twin towers too punctuating to let go. More embedded images…every generation will have them. What scenes lurk these days within our lives that perpetually remind us of the horror, the horror. We cannot escape the river.

New York souvenir. Reminiscent of Spielberg’s end-piece in Munich.
P. Ferguson image. August 2022.

At the Track

I set the plate, its blues between 5 and 6 against the rubber granules of the track. Circular shaped porcelain amidst white lines and numbers. Munich was a summer Olympics. Centennial Stadium five years old in 1972…a new school year…one wonders of the thoughts shared in the theatres, classrooms, recreation areas and over burgers with fries in the student buildings. There was much sports to share… the Canada-Russia Hockey series (September 2-28, 1972)…and Munich…Olympian Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals, the Canadian medalists in swimming and sailing – one bronze medal recipient being sailor Paul Coté co-founder of Greenpeace.

Lanes symbolic as two days in September.
P. Ferguson image. August 2022.

So how much of the track do I need? Just this piece – but then again, with this day’s wander, I encourage anyone to take the oval, the lane, the floor or any other sports venue for one second of reflection. Fifty years ago – 121 nations – September 5 and 6…Munich…eleven hostages…they’re all gone. (Jim McKay, ABC Sports)…up and over to the other side.