The Humble Stumble of Tiger Woods

2010_2_20 The Humble Stumble of Tiger Woods
Like everyone one else I watched the Tiger Woods event on television Friday morning. He looked stricken, chastened and nervous, like many politicians caught up in the same tar-baby covered with honey. Like them he thought he could get away with it. It was a schizoid dream of having the best of two worlds but a collision of contradictory worlds was inevitable. Now he stood there, naked before the multitude, his air of invincibility gone and the supreme self-confidence shelved for the time being while he tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered persona and domain. Two dozen people sat there staring at him. They were grim-faced and silent. I noticed his mother in the front row. The rest were close friends and business associates.
It was a scripted performance, his notes were in front of him and he referred to them often, and he was rather robotic in his delivery and he held his emotions in check. His annunciating was slow and precise; each word fell like a pearl into a pond. I felt lenient toward the approach he felt compelled to take at this stage of the game. He was swimming in new depths here, so he set up boundaries to what could happen. For the first time since last Thanksgiving he was coming out from under the rock where he had been hiding to do his mea culpa before his friends and associates and the television audience, which had to be vast and global. Once again he was there to say”Hello world,” but with a different face on and with a much different message to convey. As he started to speak he looked like a man who would rather have a root canal operation then admit in public he was at fault and was in therapy because he knew he needed help to sort things out and to move forward. No one likes to broadcast his mistakes or to reopen wounds for all to see. But he bit the bullet and made his apologies, several times over in fact, and was hard on himself for being such a doofus. The performance took a little over 13 minutes.
One of the more interesting highlights of the speech was the remarks about fame and the feeling of entitlement it gave him. His worldwide fame and the stature he had acquired in the Sports World-- and beyond-- eventually made him feel special, a member of an elite class of persons who didn’t have to obey the rules that everyone else does; besides, he reasoned, no one was going to find out. He figured he had worked hard his whole life and therefore he was entitled to enjoy some of the temptations that came his way. What’s wrong with a little extra fun? It only goes to prove that the celebrity context can be toxic and a ready-made disaster zone if one loses perspective and wanders off track. Perhaps his return to the faith of his mother, Buddhism, can help him get back on track. He said he had grown up a Buddhist but had drifted away the last several years. Perhaps it can become his bridge over troubled waters.
It is doubtful his speech and the numerous mea culpa along the way will satisfy the shrill moralists waiting to ask more intimate questions, seeking to amplify the salacious aspect of his transgressions, while condemning him with more vigor than before. Most sports fan don’t give a shit about his personal life or the kind of choices he has made on that level, and view all the moralizing and mud-slinging as media hoopla. They want him to get back on the golf course where he belongs, where he was born to shine. All the rest is public theater, part of the Media circus that always seems to accompany the stumbles or scandals of wealthy celebrities. It’s entertainment for the bored drones of our society, a distraction from the daily grind rife with its various problems, from unemployment to sexual dysfunction.
Roland Martin, normally a political contributor on CNN, addressed this notion that Tiger owes the public an explanation of his behavior. I agreed what he had to say about this issue. “Tiger, you don’t owe me or anyone else. I’m sick of those sanctimonious folks who are blabbering about Woods needing to be grilled about his private behavior. Look, Tiger Woods didn’t cheat on me. He’s not my daddy, mother, cousin, church members, neighbor or friend. He didn’t let me down or crush my view of him. He is not and never was my role model.” He went on to say he owes an apology to his wife, mother, some friends, and his children, when they come of age.
The trouble is Tiger has bought into the American Dream and that includes jumping through all the hoops that will mollify his critics, neutralize his sponsors, please his business partners, soothe the Public, keep the money rolling in and expand the legend of Tiger Woods.
What was it Bill Clinton said about his transgression? ”I did it because I could.” Tiger wasn’t any different.