Falling Out Of Bed

This blogging gets tougher as the days get shorter. The news media do not have the luxury of a warm den, a leather chair and a hi-def TV with cable and DVR to wallow in (like I do) as the season takes its toll on their affects. They must produce copy to meet their deadlines, deadlines that in the age beyond CNN no longer wait until five PM, but rather exist in real time, ever ready to shake, jolt and revolt us. I have no such constraints and I readily admit, my readers, that it has been two weeks since my last blog-fession.

We are in the midst of Tiger frenzy. A friend asked me to comment in my blog. Pinpoint Analysis is what he may have hoped for, but I’m thinking, these days that, like my brother Bill joked, my postings tends to be not at all analytic, a bit obtuse and written (who said it?) by a pinhead. What, me worry? Heck no. Here goes…

Hiding Tiger, Revealed Transgressions is nothing more than an ancient Greek tragedy. How the mighty have fallen and all of that. It’s Oedipus with his eyes out or the Emperor with no clothes. We elevate our modern heroes up on 90 million per year endorsement pedestals and delight in their falls. For some of America Tiger was more than a king or hero, he was a god. There was a website tigerisgod.com. Forgive me, but I can’t go on without playing the race card. Tiger was revenge. He beat the white guys at their game. He proved yet again, the physical superiority of blacks. He took the white guys' trophies, prize money, endorsement contracts and even their blond Viking goddess. For white America, he made us feel less racist. Corporate America showed us how colorblind they could be… when there’s profit to be made. They turned him into a billion dollar brand. No matter what bad consequences may come as a result of Tiger’s infidelity, if rich blacks, Asians, Jews and women can now be members in formerly white only clubs, I’d say Tiger did good. Without Tiger (and Oprah) there’s no way Obama would be President. They showed America’s power brokers that a black product could be packaged, sold, return a profit and inspire along the way. A shake up like this forces us to face the wide racial divide that still exists in America, and that is good too. Amid comparisons between Tiger and OJ, SNL skits and all of ESPN’s self-righteous pundits telling Tiger how to live his life, my favorite quote was from a black 20 something, who when interviewed on the street, said that he would never have voted for Obama if Obama had not been married to a black woman. That thought had never occurred to me. Of course not, I’m white.

For Tiger and his family, I wish them the best. No one really wants to be, or live with a god. For the rest of us, there’s still a lot of work to be done as a country, and as we all must admit, behind our own closed doors too; as husbands, wives, children, parents and friends. Before the year is over please, someone, get me up out of this leather chair. There’s some holidays and a new year coming. If there’s work to be done , let’s do it together.

Tigger: There's no difference between plunging 10,000 feet to the jagged rocks below and falling out of bed.

Piglet: Oh, really?

Tigger: Sure, haha! Except for the splat at the end they're practically similar.