The Olympic Stadium

I’m sorry – I can’t resist.  I’m still aching from the ending of the games!  I had to watch the Great North Run on Sunday just to keep the fix going.

The Paralympics closing ceremony summed up a huge amount of the positivity that abounded through the summer.  And if positivity isn’t one of those elusive soft-skills that are hard to keep up, I don’t know what is!

Oscar Pistorius – “Heroes give people hope”.  Yes, and we all have them – maybe a teacher, maybe a parent, maybe even a boss (it is possible!).

“The Games-makers stand among the heroes of these games”  Yes – in both closing ceremonies, the loudest cheer and unadulterated standing ovations were reserved for ‘the volunteers’.  But games-makers is such a fantastic description of what they did.  It’s that simple change to a positive descriptor, not a straight fact of volunteering  – it just makes all the difference.  And how did they train them?  Well, a bit of basics and then a simple exhortation:  “Just go and be yourselves”.

And Seb Coe (one of two Tories to be cheered…) – “We will never think of sport the same way and never think of disability the same way again”.

“It has lifted the cloud of limitation”

Made in Britain.  How proud does that make you?  And how much of this legacy of positivity from the Olympic Spirit can we keep in our head, hearts and our work?