There are weeks, months, years, and then there are Olympiads.
An Olympiad is a four-year period marking the ancient games held at Olympia.
It's notable that the Olympic year coincides with another once-in-four-years occurrence: leap year.
Yes, each year the Summer Olympics occurs, there is an additional "leap day" in February.
Praise Zeus.
As the first Olympiad was ordained from above, so was leap day — astronomically if not heavenly. We mortals eventually divined it into our earthly routine along with high tides, planting seasons, and monthly cell phone plans.
Carpe diem!
How might this bonus day be put to good use for promoting a better and more peaceful world through the Olympic ideal as the games approach?
Let leap day from now on be known as Olympic Truce Day.
It is well-timed for refreshing the enthusiasm for the Games and their virtues all safeguarded by the Olympic Truce.
What is the Olympic Truce, more specifically?
It is the oldest international agreement in existence to ensure peaceful passage and participation each Games. Its high moral purposes constitute the pinnacle of the Olympic Movement and all its works.
The United Nations recently reaffirmed the Olympic Truce making it the most supported international agreement ever.
Notably, in our times the goals of safe passage and participation now go beyond safe trekking through warring city-states.
Today’s Olympic Truce addresses modern forms of safe passage and participation — and fair play in any realm.
Its widening scope encompasses crowd control, anti-doping, stadium security, uninterrupted online access, and human rights when at home as well as afield.
This calls for new applications beyond UN exhortations.
The key application is that each of us act as Olympians.
How?
By channeling the Truce’s spirit for inspiring our communities, households, and hearts over the obstacles in their paths.
Were there Games before the Truce, or was the Truce first needed to hold the games?
In 776 BC three war-weary kings sought heavenly counsel.
They agreed to convene peacefully through sport at Olympia’s sacred grove where their champions would strive for the godly favor of Zeus.
But ongoing battles among the city-states discouraged pilgrims’ passage to Olympia.
So, bounded by their shared respect for deity, the kings forged the Olympic Truce.
Engraved on a discus enshrined near the field, the Olympic Truce assured safe passage to and from the sacred grove lest travelers be waylaid or ambushed.
Further, it set rules during the games.
These included: no arms on the grounds, no lawsuits to commence, no executions to occur back home, and most importantly no cheating.
The games and truce enabled adversaries to gather, share a common identity, and negotiate.
They also gave rise to diplomatic innovations that endured over time into the creation of the UN Charter.
In general, the Truce called on all to "live and let live" — if only for a brief while surrounding the games.
Maybe something good would result than otherwise.
Truce bearers were trained and dispatched months before the games.
They heralded the exact dates of the games.
More importantly they reminded of the force of the Olympic Truce which was itself the entire corpus of international law in that era.
As to the phenomenon of leap day, it has remained unclaimed to date by any religious, cultural, or political tradition.
Leap day was added by Julius Caeser to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomic year.
It corrected the drift between a civilization's dating system and the physical properties of the solar system.
Similarly, each Feb. 29 could remind us to correct the drift between civilization’s aggressions and the spiritual properties of the Olympic ideal.
So, may Olympic Truce Day serve to align our troubled earth with the heavens above for a better and more peaceful world through sport — if only for a brief while surrounding the Games, but perhaps beyond.
Hugh Dugan served as acting special presidential envoy for hostage affairs and senior director for international organization affairs at the national security council after having advised 11 U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations since 1989. He is Founder of The Truce Foundation, inspired by the Olympic TruceRead Hugh Dugan's Reports — More Here.
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