what it means to be canadian

No matter how awkward The Great One looked standing in the back of a truck slowly making its way down a different route to light the outdoor Olympic cauldron or whatever technical difficulty occurred  seconds before the end of the show at BC Place, the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games were OUTSTANDING.

Outstanding.

I went through at least four kleenexes at my friend’s house while the three hours of unprecedented storytelling unfolded.

The images of killer whales, the four host nations welcoming the world, kd Lang’s performance, the aerial salute to the prairies, the fiddlers, Donald Sutherland’s voice and snowboarder Johnny Lyall flying through the Olympic rings? Heck yes. What do you call that?

One Helluva Show.

So, when the lights shone on local artist extraordinaire, Shane Koyczan, I literally thought there was no way this opening ceremony could get any better unless a hologram of Terry Fox lit the cauldron, but that’s a very steep unless.

To witness Shane Koyczan perform is to know that you’re alive. And the fact that The Opening Ceremony planners had the foresight to  not only feature a hyper-local-exceptional talent, but a spoken word artist, well, here’s one word: outstanding. Ok two in caps: OUTSTANDING.

I felt sooo much pride for Vancouver, for the arts, for storytelling, for Canada that I didn’t think my chest could swell any larger without something gross happening.

And here’s the thing, Shane Koyczan’s performance is like kd Lang’s singing to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah: it comes from a place you feel privileged to witness. Honoured, exalted, even.

His commissioned masterpiece is uniting more Canadians than a chain of Tim Horton’s and I know that is saying a lot.

So I have to say this, there is one line in his work We are More,  that struck an off chord in my chest.

“and yes we say zed instead of zee”

It has never stood out to me before. I think it’s a pretty humble, clever little line, but somehow it being said while lit up on a drum stage in front of 68 million viewers, it sounded smug, snide, maybe a tiny bit like we were sticking out our tongues and saying “nahnahnahnah”. Like we resorted to semantics in front of our guests from the States. That we still can’t define ourselves unless it’s in comparison to those guests, to our neighbours to the south. And Koyczan is beyond right, we are more than that.

Much much more.

And something gross did happen in my chest, a small part of it turned to ash. With those eight words, a part of me slumped and thought, ah shoot, that’s not very Canadian.

So, I felt a tiny bit disappointed not because a pillar of the indoor cauldron didn’t raise up or that Canadian broadcasters kept calling attention to it, but that it felt like an artist with more integrity, heart and dignity than you could shake a dozen maple leafs at, played “king of the castle” for a second and the audience snickered right along.

I don’t think originally the poem was ever meant to come across like that.  It’s a prideful, humble piece of art.

So that said, I also have to say this: the guts, heart, courage, grit and talent, oh gosh, THE TALENT Shane Koyczan has would swell any chest to the point of bursting with pure pride. Olympic pride. I thought kd Lang stole the show until I saw Shane Koyczan’s beard and vest light up in the centre of it all.  No matter what my small beef, his performance was outstanding just like the entire Opening Ceremonies.

Go, Canada, go.