But I can't help it. This is my third card in a row about the 2010 Winter Olympics. It absorbed my life - and having just watched the culmination last night (I leave it to you to decide whether the culmination was the flying moose of the Closing Ceremonies or the flying puck of the hockey game) I can not think of anything else.

It's easy to talk in hindsight. Many people will claim that they could see this coming, this outpouring of national pride and a coast to coast two week celebration. But they didn't - they're lying. It came out of nowhere and surprised us all.

But I will give my opinion on where it came from...

As momentum started to build, I listened to two commentators debate where this new-found pride had come from. What had changed in Canada or in Canadians to elicit such pride? Why did we feel this way, all of a sudden?

"You don't get it!" I yelled, sitting at the TV.

We've ALWAYS been this way. Canadians are INTENSELY proud. Always have been. But for some reason, and I, for one, have no clue why, we finally allowed it to show. What you saw over the last two weeks was what Canadians have always felt, deep down inside. We're awesome.

And not just in performance. (More golds than anyone.) But in attitude. We're leaders in comraderie.

I actually read people (ok, Americans) BITCHING that Miller was nice to Luongo after the big hockey game, smiling and doing the man-hug thing. Come on, people! You begrudge the fact that you won a silver medal and one of your team was nice to the gold medalists? That's why I'm glad to live in Canada. Yeah, we want to do well. But we want everybody to do well.

We love competition. We love friendly competition. We love pretending to hate people, just for the sake of the game, when we'd give them the shirts off our backs if they needed it.

Anyway, I'm rambling...

My Canada is defined by these past Olympics. It will quiten down now. But make no mistake. Underneath, we still feel the same way.