The Olympics come around every four years to remind us of things like patriotism and the perseverance of the human spirit. But in the time of Covid, do sports still have uniting power they once held? As athletes play to empty stadiums and quarantine in the Olympic village, I wonder...

I gather around the TV with my family and watch the opening ceremonies. Dancers, all dressed in white, interweave themselves with red threads. 
A narrator reminds a bored American audience that this thread represents the circulatory system. Drums pound and acrobats weave and flip and bounce. At the top of an abstract model of Mt. Fuji,  a cauldron waits to be filled with flame.