Monday, December 7, 2009

What Tiger Taught Me

Tiger Woods has a young, gorgeous wife. That didn't stop him from cheating on her with 4 and likely more women. What keeps a husband faithful is not the toneness of his wife's abs or her parenting skills. Men (and women) stay faithful because the sanctity of marriage is much more important to them then pursuing any fleeting desire to experiment with another partner. Sure, Tiger has money and power and maybe thought he could cover up his affairs and get away with them without hurting Elin or his kids or the public finding out. Maybe Tiger didn't have a chance to "explore" enough before he got married and needs to fulfill his male yearning to sow his seed. These are all comments I have heard recently from friends when discussing the TW scandal. These points may be true - but the strongest factor that allowed a man with literally everything in the world going for him to risk it all was that he took his life for granted and assumed it could only get better. Even the greatest and most successful people fall, and their fall often takes place when they start to assume that their blessings are a given. The day we stop appreciating what we have and assuming it will automatically be there tomorrow, is the day we are susceptible to making dangerous choices that can screw up (no pun intended) our life.


My advice for today: All the goodness we have we must embrace and work hard for everyday. If we don't, we could lose it fast.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with Danielle's analysis and advice on this matter. However, I think there is another aspect of this issue that should be taken into account when we try to understand the behavior of men such as Tiger Woods, etc. For thousands of years and in many cultures, men lived polygamous existences. Sometimes they had several wives and concubines all at the same time. According to the values of these societies such conduct constitued acceptable customs, in fact they were even encouraged. It was the most privileged and powerful members of society that enjoyed such polygamous existences. Is this not similar to what happens in modern society? In addition, in societies where the rich and powerful controlled the majority of available women and thereby dominated society, the younger and poorer men were left with no option but to forage for women whereever they could find them. Often this led them to seek out women who were not legally available to them. While polygamy has generally become a practice of the past, many of the rich and powerful consider they are entitled to have the benefits of "polygamous" relations. It seems that monogamy and polygamy have still not reconciled.

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  2. Thank you for your comment. It definitely puts my opinion of Tiger within a historical and anthropological context that I had not thought about.

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  3. I'm not sure if it was articulated here at all. I agree with the historical anecdote for sure, however, it is obvious that there was something missing for him. Sometimes it's never about sex. He was selfish, obviously. It could have been about freedom. Having insight into the entertainment industry big names like Tiger Woods are controlled in every way. Their IMAGE, career, home life etc. While I am not in favor of the nature of this obviously disturbed individual, it's obvious he was crying out for control, power and freedom....because really when it comes down to it that's what being irresponsible is usually all about. His behaviour was childish and narcisisstic at best and it goes to show you that nobody has it all and when you do (or so it seems) you are greedy and want more.

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