Too SOON FOR Tiger
When you were a kid, did people (grown-ups) force you to say, “I’m sorry” when you weren’t ready to do it? You’d fight your brother, pinch your cousin in the back seat or squabble with the BFF from down the street and then adults would march you into the enemy’s presence so you could mumble a barely audible and contrived apology. Well I had to do it and in retrospect I know now that character isn’t contrived nor is it expedited. There is no drive-through window where you can pick-up a side order of humility and contrition after binging on shame sandwiches.
Tiger Woods is not a kid and I think he is really sorry for the grief through which he’s put his wife Elin Woods but he’s hardly ready to reenter the professional world of sports. I know this because Tiger is not actually a cat, he’s a man. And lest any man delude himself, our impulses toward the opposite sex are ravenous, especially when those impulses are regularly yielded to in the face of more temptation than 99 percent of men will ever encounter.
It’s been three months or so since the confusing incident at the Woods’ house that led to seemingly countless women coming forward to expose the golf icon’s infidelity. And now we’re preparing for the return of the king. He’s not ready and it has nothing to do with golf. The sports world is like the other world, built on financial stilts that deem lucre the deity of our age. There’s home, family, the important things and then there’s money which trumps all three. WHAT? Sports wants to change so badly if you believe the words of its community spokespeople, the commissioners and such. But When a man falls 20 stories from grace, he’s going to need a little more than three months to reform a self that likely took a lifetime to construct. Go home Tiger Woods. Golf ain’t goin’ anywhere.
Posted: by Norman Anthony
Category: Character, Today's Post
My feelings on this topic stem from more of a selfish point of view. When Tiger Woods came on the scene is when my awareness of the sport began. I didn’t want to be Tiger Woods, on the contrary. I dreamt of being like the great Pele! However, it was because of Tiger that I started to follow golf and my thirst for learning the sport began. Fast forward now to what’s going on with the state of Tiger and his family and I find myself in the same situation. Wanting to see this amazing golfer,athlete perform. I can’t even begin to imagine what his family life is like, yet that is his cross to bear . Should he come back, when he comes back, well then that is what the Tiger chose to do. What else is he going to do? The cat is out of the bag (no pun intended), now what? Get on with your life, get on with golf.
Thanks Jason. I think many share that opinion and I certainly think he has to be proactive and not dwell. But I always see things through my lenses and I think back to a time when I was working in the ministry and making some mistakes. I was in a relationship with someone and when the relationship became more important to me than my relationship with God, I was out of alignment and I knew it. I always felt that the people I worked with and for knew my girlfriend/fiance and I were struggling but the mentality in my work environment seemed to be, “Just get it together. Fix it and keep doing your job.” I’ve been around a lot of people who have jacked their lives up and multi-tasking just seems to be ineffective. It’s like having your cake and eating it too, like not being a dad and then still getting to have a relationship with your kid when he’s 20 years old. To me, golfing, traveling, being under the heat of scrutinizing media is a formula for driving a dude right back to the destruction though the outlet could be different this time. They say that when you break up with someone, you need one year for every two you were in the relationship. I don’t know if I agree with that but I know it takes time to heal…even if you’re Tiger. But I could be wrong.