does a Tiger sh*t in the Woods?

“…if a man is ashamed and dares not say what he thinks he is forced to contradict himself.”--Plato

A month ago, the world sat front-row as golfer Tiger Woods gave an extensive account of the sorrow he has felt over the past few months dealing with the public unraveling of his top-secret epic adventure as an adulterer. Sorry Tiger, but nobody believes you.

Plato once said, “…if a man is ashamed and dares not say what he thinks he is forced to contradict himself.” Woods is clearly embarrassed, guilty, and ashamed. So how can the public really acknowledge his request for forgiveness if he is being inconsistent in expressing his sorrow? In actuality, Woods is not at fault for this façade. It’s us, the fans.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was a lesson to all of us about the nature of human beings. When the Puritan colony leaders forced Hester Prynne to bear the scarlet “A” on her chest, it was meant to force upon her a strong sense of shame and alienation from the rest of the “pure” people in the community who would never commit such a crime. Sound familiar? Prynne’s situation is a prime example of how society breeds this notion that we must all succumb to the world’s expectations of us; that we must adhere to the banal notions of order, justice, and education. But if the Wright brothers did what people expected of them, they would not have been able to bend metal and create objects that can fly people over vast oceans. And if Martin Luther King Jr. did what people expected of him, blacks and whites would not be able to coexist peacefully in the United States.

Hawthorne’s bold character however gracefully accepts her punishment. Instead of walking with her head hung low, Prynne bears the scarlet letter with pride as a symbol of what she has been through. Woods shows us the opposite. He stands at the podium with watering red puppy-dog eyes as he meticulously delivers his scripted apology. And what do we all do? We discuss it, debate it, analyze it, and believe it. We eat it up like a fat ten year old at McDonald’s. Like the recent explosion of reality television, the world has begun to relish bearing witness to these “private” vulnerable moments of humiliation….

--leohn