Virginia Is For Families

This morning I invested in a subscription to ESPN Magazine and ESPN Insider. The thought process was to read about sports and maybe do some blogging about it.

Subject matter is important. You can’t write about nothing all the time! Do I look like Seinfeld and company? Being George the blogger is not something that will motivate anyone to get up in the morning.
And I enjoy sports. We are getting down to the fun football games that December usually brings.

So we shall see. But the first thing that I saw after becoming a subscriber was MORE information about Tiger Woods and his recent attempted escape from domestic tranquility. Tiger issued another statement:

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. . .”

It goes on to talk about privacy issues which are clearly very important to all of us. One of the things that seems to infect media people is the belief that if you are famous or wealthy or endorse products you automatically give up many rights to privacy.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they are not suggesting anyone give up ALL their rights to privacy. But they are aggressive for the most part in their insistence that people like Tiger should share “intimate details” as he puts it.

Well none of us want to be thinking and saying that this is a great guy if he’s not actually someone who fits our perception of a really cool person. It doesn’t take too long to start feeling a bit foolish if you do that and I am feeling somewhat foolish this morning based on my past statements about Tiger in this blog.

I guess I’m one of the people who Tiger has offered a “profound apology”.

And I don’t think he’s apologizing for messing up his car or hitting the fire hydrant. It sounds like he has been messing around with another woman or women. Who knows? Not your blogging buddy. I’ve been busy following the terrain in Middle Earth. My wife knows where I am and at my age it’s not too difficult to imagine what I have not been doing.

My wife tells me that she heard on the news that Elin, Tiger’s wife, wants changes made in their prenuptial agreement or she’s going to start heading out the door.

Is this true? I have NO idea. But then there is more and it just begins to create a picture that is so familiar to all of us. Guys! Is marriage about getting your sexual needs met? I know that when we are thirteen years old we sometimes think it is so. But guess what? It’s not so.

And yet here is the same media telling us over and over again that it IS so. Magazines, books and all the rest letting us know that we should do this or that to make our marriages sizzle like a steak off the grill. And what do they often tell you should happen if things aren’t so happy for some length of time?

Is divorce alright with the media? In general? Is it an accepted part of our lives? Sure it is. And there are different stages of divorce. The first one often does not involve a legal pad. It’s more like taking a fishing trip and sticking your toe in the water.

An unfortunate analogy. I apologize.

Maybe Tiger was feeling like he couldn’t play his best golf unless he was “relaxed”. Maybe he has a problem holding a few drinks. Or maybe he’s getting smiles from beautiful women all the time and he knows what some of them mean. And it’s just driving him crazy. Because he has a beautiful, sexy wife but they don’t see each other every day and there are issues. . .

We have worked the solution to these things out as a society. Unfortunately. It’s all too easy to see the professionals who will sort out the details.

But Tiger is not ready to go that route. He has offered those of us who care a profound apology. Does he mean it? I bet he does mean it. I don’t think he would have said it if he didn’t mean it.

I know he means it. But it’s a long road and an uphill drive in our world. It’s just so easy to just back out the door.

All you can do is give it your best effort and be honest about it. Don’t sneak around. Don’t lie. Don’t do things that will follow you around the rest of your life. If you back out the door you may make a fool of yourself!

Tiger knows all about that. Hopefully it will be a lesson that serves a very good purpose.

This is a different kind of contest Tiger. Fight for your family. Don’t let another man raise your kids. Fight like the man we know you can be. Being the world’s greatest golfer is not enough.

Be a man.

Daughtry/ Leave This Town

Play – Life After You