Empowerment. Engagement. Authenticity.
Lighten Up - Paralympic Spotlight
My last thought before stepping off the
courthouse roof was of Paralympic medals gleaming gold, silver and
bronze against black velvet under florescent light at the Mint. And then
I was a disembodied daffodil drifting over a cityscape jigsawed into
miniature LED and neon geometrics beneath an inky night sky.
The yellow trench coat had called to me that morning from a
silver-strobed store window. February 2010 had been unusually warm, even
for Canada’s west coast, and Vancouver was flying in snow by the
plane-load for the Olympic Winter Games. So why not step out of winter
black into sunlight?
Already, people had commented that the colour gave me an aura. I sailed
on that aura, and the gloss of my virgin media pass, through interviews
at the British Columbia Pavilion and the Royal Canadian Mint.
“The BC Pavilion would love to offer you a chance on the zipline,” Sally
Barton murmured with a toothpaste commercial smile. “I’ll meet you here
at six o’ clock.” She stood, shook my hand and cameras flashed.
“Thank you. I look forward to it,” I returned with a cool graciousness
that belied the little girl cartwheeling inside me. People had been
standing in eight-hour lineups for the last month to try the zipline
stretching over Robson Street.
The reception had been no less courteous at the Royal Canadian Mint,
aside from the snooty receptionist who had been too hypnotized by the
glare of her monitor to look up.
“The line up’s outside,” she had droned in a voice that sounded like a
kazoo.
“I have a meeting with Alex,” I’d explained, holding up my media pass.
“We’ll just see about that. Name, please.” The huff remained in her
voice as she called her boss, obviously thinking I was just another
impatient medal-gawker hoping to skip the six-hour wait. There was a
beat of silence after she hung up. Then her blue eyes zoned in on me,
lashes fluttering. “He’ll just be a minute. Can I get you some coffee?”
I was coffeed out but I sent her hustling off nonetheless.
And now, I was twirling over the city, harnessed to a wire invisible to
the spotlights that illuminated my yellow coat. I let my limbs go loose.
How quickly accomplishment and anticipation dissolves into awe.
(c) Kristy Kassie, 2016
Read feedback on Paralympic Spotlight.
Lighten Up
Light, its presence or absence, creates mood and adds to character in a scene.
