Out Of The Woods

It appears that life always seems to prove that we can run but we can never hide. That seems to be the obvious lesson learned as yet another person falls from grace. Tiger Woods has seemed to let the whole world down. At the very least, he proved that we never really know anyone. We just know what they want us to see. The alleged infractions speak for themselves. It is hard to look past what is obvious. I just ask of Woods one question. Why get married? If he is capable of what it seems he is capable of, why get married? Why do that to his wife, his kids and his reputation in the end? I don't understand why many of us give ourselves the credit to always think we can overcome who we really are inside. We don't tend to be honest with ourselves about who we really are or are capable of being. I sense in many cases, for people that it is not in their best interest or the people that they are involved with's best interest to be married or be whatever the circumstances allow them to be, they tend to do so to mask their own inadequacies rather than deny themselves the opportunity based on who they know themselves to be. Sometimes we think a relationship can change who we are. We think the person that we are with can change who we are. No matter what or who you surround yourself with, no one can change you but you.

With that said, I find the response to this revelation about Woods to be very intriguing. Day after day, person after person is giving their opinion about Woods and how if they were in Woods' position, how much smarter they would be than Woods. Or they somehow hide behind their thirty thousand dollar a year job, their thirty thousand dollar a year wife, their thirty thousand dollar a year children, their thirty thousand dollar a year car, there thirty thousand dollar a year life, and consider themselves to be equal to Woods and scream from the high heavens about how morally sound they know that they have to be and how they could never do such a thing. The irony about every single one of us is none of us know the full magnitude of what we are capable of. We think we are not capable of many things. But the best we can do is really hope that we are not capable if we are truly honest. None of us will be presented with every life scenario the world has ever known and has to offer. So truthfully we think we know ourselves and our capabilities and our limitations, but at the end of the day, we really don't know until we get there. Wherever there is. We don't know what it is like to have the extraordinary ability to succeed like Woods and we will never know the extraordinary ability to fail that his kind of success can allow for. It is easy to talk about it hiding behind the normal procedures of our lives. I believe as a judgmental public, we tend to give ourselves too much credit as if we have a less ability to fail.

The one thing that confuses me about Woods and people like Woods is I don't understand how they can work so hard to maximize their full potential in their professions, but not transfer that same work ethic to being the best person, man, husband and father they can be and reach their full potential on that side of the spectrum. That puzzles me. If they can live life with the same zest and vigor that they display in their golf game or whatever the profession might be, these revelations would be far and few between rather than what seems to be every week now. I don't wish the world to end for Woods. I just hope that he, his wife, his family and the public learn the lessons that are there to be learned rather than just feed on it as a story that is fascinating to those of us on the outside looking in. Even in someone else's crisis, we on the outside can learn a lot about ourselves.