I just love Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps' mother. Even in her Nordstrom cruise-ship jackets (on the second floor in the back at University Mall), she looks just a tiny bit...frumpy. Like me. I've bought those jackets too, in hopes that with a black shirt and pants, I'll look oh, maybe four pounds lighter.

In the interest of greater research, I did some reading about Debbie Phelps and her approach to all the hoopla going on around them. She never loses sight of the fact that she just wants her son to do as well as he can. If he wins two medals or eight, they're all happy. It's just that Michael plans to leave the 2008 Olympics with something for people to gawk at for years. So she's there to support him. At every race, her "GoMichaelgoMichaelgoMichaelgoMichael" is so unself-conscious she's as fun to watch as he is.

He reminds me of a slightly spoiled little boy whose mom adores him and always believes he's the best. So he believes it too. A marvelous quality.

Obviously somewhere along the line she's also instilled in him a sense of hard work, a great sense of humor, and an amazing desire to do better. Tonight, Tuesday, I watched him set a new world record to win the 200-meter men's freestyle final.

Not only did he win the gold, he set a new world's record. All this with an mind-boggling schedule of media interviews, drug tests before and after each race, a new final race everyday and a new qualifying race to swim after each final. (She may not get to see him much, but how many moms get to have their kids tested for drugs seventeen times a day!)

He had already won two gold medals and this was his chance to tie with the all-time individual medal totals. All he had to do was win and yet he set a new record. Sure, he's an amazing swimmer, but that's a classy effort.

My daughter says it's because he's twenty-three. The assumption being that he really doesn't yet realize he can't do all he's doing

Radison Parry, my recently graduated Springville neighbor, remarked the fact that Michael Phelps never takes off his earphones. He just sits there bobbing his head and singing along until they announce his race. He seems absolutely impervious to pressure.

One of my favorite quotes is from the daughter of a not-to-famous British actor Peter Bowles who is the guy on To the Manor Born, one of those late night PBS comedies. Mr. Bowles has bowled along in his career, quietly supporting his family with his acting for many years, and now he's well-respected in his field. (At least he was when I went to England last year and read the paper.)

Anyway, his daughter said the quality she most admired in her father was his ability to believe in himself. Year after year, going to auditions, getting batted down or lifted up, all seemingly randomly, he believed in himself.

Imagine the relief it would be if we all believed in ourselves. We could save hours that we now waste not having to beef each other up every time we turn around. Insecurity is so much work for everyone involved.

There are certain things that always make me tear up. The National Anthem played by a bad high school band in the Fourth of July parade; the first time I hear "Silent Night" played at night during December.

During the 2002 Olympics the school where I worked was notified it would be along the torch route. All our parents brought donuts and hot chocolate and as the PTA president, I worked like a crazy person. We had hundreds of people show up, many more than we'd planned for. The fuses kept going out on the hot water containers for the chocolate. The torch was about an hour late so we kept busy playing a Beach Boys CD over and over until someone found a CD of the Olympic theme song.

Suddenly, about nine, out of the dark, there was a rush of attention, heads turning and there it was. This tiny light through the crowd and then it was gone. In seconds. My heart stopped and then I started crying. I was overwhelmed with the moment. It seemed like such a celebration of pure goodness.

I remember that moment while I watch TV each night. Amid all the special commercials and discussions of political dissention, there are real people who have done these amazing things and we get to share these moments with them in so many unguarded ways.You know, it almost makes me want to exercise.