>How is it that everyone and their mother has some piece of advice for Tiger Woods?
I got truly disgusted with the media when they reported how his mother in law was rushed to the hospital, but Anthony Tjan’s article in the Harvard Business Review blog did me in.
Yes, the debate on celebrity privacy issues and the scenes of paparazzi chasing Princess D on that fatal night in Paris are part of the ugly memories that will sneak into the 21st century hall of shame time capsule.
People seem to have an obsession learning other people’s “dirty” little secrets. But what is “dirty?” Whose morality is defining that people’s private moments – good or bad – socially acceptable or not – should be out in the open, torn to pieces, examined under the microscope, turned inside out, useless void air in the hollowness of chasms of “perceived” knowledge.
Is Tiger Woods the first or last husband who cheated on his wife? Who among us is so shockingly surprised by the fact that a successful, wealthy, youngish celebrity – he happened to be a man, but married women happen to “cheat” on their husbands, too – is not monogamous?
Unless you lived on Mars, you would know that such incidents are part of the deal. I want to avoid the philosophical debate on the holy institution of marriage. I will not go there, even though that would have been a much more meaningful commentary — afterall, if the agreements and bonds of marriage are so often “betrayed,” broken, and re-defined, shouldn’t we be looking at the rules that seem to beg us to break them?
When our brother-in-law, our sister, our aunt or our beloved friend come to confess their extra-marital affair, we shush them up and whisper secretely in their ear. We try to hide, conceal, avoid, deny, cover. Sometimes, we condemn, sometimes we forgive, but most often the knee-jerk reaction is to try to “fix” the “problem.” But, the point is that when it comes to people we know – the issue is hush-hush. Ugly gossip is to be avoided at all costs.
One thing is certain: “Cheating” – a term coined by the moral majority who is neither – happens to almost all of us. We either do it to our spouse or our spouse has already done it to us. Deal with it. Don’t pretend you are shocked by it because you are not. Not on planet Earth.
Bottom line, people are entitled to their lives. It is theirs to live, their journeys to make, their dreams to dream, their lessons to learn. So, leave Tiger alone. Let him roar.
* I challenge you to count the number of married couples you know who have not had a similar experience. And then look hard at all of those who had. They are probably still “happilly” married. Aren’t they?
And if you don’t believe me, just go here: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6054F820100106?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest
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