The Summer Olympic Games kicked off in Paris last week, heralding the beginning of a three-week period where the world’s most talented athletes gather to seek glory for their homelands on the international battlefield; a moment many of them have probably dreamed about since childhood.

Everything about the Olympics — from the theatrics of the opening ceremony (including legitimately touching moments like Celine Dion’s triumphant belting of “Hymne à l’amour” from a platform on the Eiffel Tower in her native French tongue despite the physical challenges resulting from a rare neurological disease) to the litany of sporting events themselves — personifies the spirit of the human condition in a way that transcends the day-to-day malaise of life.

Whether someone grew up into a poor farming family in Kazakhstan, or to a wealthy family of athletes in urban Spain, the playing field is equalized, the rules are unbiased, and the stakes are as high as imaginable.

Perhaps one of the nicest things to see throughout the games is the respect that athletes have for one another, even while competing their hardest to conquer one another. In the heat of battle, players will help their competitors stand to their feet if they fall, check on them if they appear injured, and share embraces in victory and defeat. Many of these athletes have been competing against one another for years, and it doesn’t matter if they share nothing else in common, or if their countries literally fought and killed one another in prior decades; the love and passion for their sport rises above all else.

In some ways, it reveals something utterly confounding about human beings in general. It shows that at some very fundamental level of our spirit, we understand that we are all equals. The politics of China play no part in whether a Chinese table tennis player wins a set against their Brazilian opponent; the rhetoric of politicians and the size of armies don’t garner any advantages on the soccer pitch. Sports strip away all of the manmade animosity we generate for one another, and condenses life into a simple, albeit a zero-sum game. A game where at the end, regardless of outcome, you shake your foe’s hand and move on.

Of course, global geopolitics isn’t so simple. We fight over culture, resources, historical trauma, politics, and everything else imaginable. But at the very least, sports demonstrate our capability to set aside differences in the spirit of something larger; and we think that’s something valuable to recognize, and keep in mind.

Of course, we also need to give a shout out to all Rhode Island athletes competing in the Olympics, and a special shout out to the Cranston West Little League softball team now headed to the Little League World Series in August.

Perhaps some time down the road — if we manage as a world to show the kind of sportsmanship displayed by these athletes — we’ll be seeing some of these talented youngsters on an ever-grander stage one day.