I have been watching the Winter Olympics a bit. The Winter Olympics are one of the only
sporting events that I find truly interesting.
Most of the events are filled with great feats of flight and fury. I think I am also attracted by the personal
stories from all across the world. Stories
of great victory. Stories of mighty
struggles. Stories with deep human
elements. I am amazed by the effort—sometimes
well more than a decade of constant practice and pursuit—that some athletes
will expend simply to compete for gold in the Olympics.
The story of Evgeni Plushenko is illustrative. At the age of 31 and long suffering from
injuries, including a back surgery in which a synthetic disk was inserted into
his spine to replace one damaged by the rigors of men’s figure skating,
Plushenko still hit the ice for Olympic gold.
Plushenko led the Russians to a gold medal in the first ever team figure
skating event, but later dropped out of men’s figure skating competition as his
back problems flared once again.
But the pursuit of gold carried him through that
first team figure skating event.
As I watched repeated replays of Evgeni Plushenko struggling
to skate just prior to dropping out of the competition due to his back injury,
I thought about another more miraculous quest for gold that I witnessed here in
Montana. Put more precisely, I have
seen gold cure men of complete disability.
A few years ago, when the price of gold escalated
beyond $1,000.00 per ounce, miracles occurred. Several men that I know who have been many
years on permanent disability (with handsome benefits) for back injuries so
severe they were incapable of working were apparently cured by the price of
gold. They were able to secretly go out
and work a placer mine. They dug deep into
the rocky ground with their shovels.
They carried buckets of water and diggings. They hoisted and lugged and dragged all
manner of items in the quest for gold.
Fortunately, for all parties, the agencies paying
their disability benefits were unaware of their cure. When the quest for gold turned out to be
actual work and only occasional specs of gold appeared in their fines, the
would-be miners once again realized they were incapable of work and fell back
to a life of suffering and complete disability.
Such is the quest for gold.
--Mitchell
Hegman