A Lasting Legacy Already Achieved?

I have already watched the opening ceremony to the 2012 Olympics twice more since I watched the first hour or so live, but it did start later than my normal time for sleep.

The more I have had time for the incredible spectacle of the ceremony to sink in, the more I have realised that already I feel it has made a substantial difference to me.

And likewise, I am sure it must have made a similar important difference to many other people, and perhaps particularly those that were present on the evening, or who were lucky enough to have been personally involved in some way.

It is like having been present at the first performance of a new opera, which is something that I have had the privilege to have done many times during my professional life in The Arts.

But this has been something quite different. Engaging in quite an extraordinary way, through the brilliance of the storytelling, and perhaps in particular by the way in which it was achieved, by the involvement of so many volunteers.

I have suddenly become so much more interested in watching the sporting events as they happen, whatever they are.

Because what they all have in common is that they have had their birth with this extraordinary opening, which has somehow made clear the significance of the Olympic ideals.

And the context of this event as the summation of our cultural heritage and history, and from the imaginative and creative world that has been so intertwined with the lives of all of us.

This is quite an achievement. Happening at this point in time when our future seems so uncertain, I can only hope that the message of these games will have moved the hearts of many more like me, and that this above all things in our common experience will be remembered as a catalyst for a new and resurgent sense of Self and of Society.

It hardly seems important exactly how many gold medals we may win. It is definitely simply the taking part, and perhaps this may translate across more than simply the arena of sport and supporting excellence.

It is more than simply the regeneration of my part of East London, where i was brought up, but of myself, and of my Country - the Country to which we can all offer our proud allegiance.