Mirota Batik

Copyright (c) 2009 Lucille Uttermohlen

When I’m deciding what to write about, , I use several methods. Our local judge, who I affectionately and irreverently call “Judgipoo” often inspires me. He might not be real happy to know what a net presence I’m giving him. Other judges and colleagues often do things that find their way to my pen, or keyboard if we’re going to be less poetic about it.

Today, I turned to Google for a subject on which I could wax profound, or at least marginally interesting. There are plenty of topics I could cover about blended families, divorce, custody, and other subjects that are represented on my site. I’ll write about those, but none resonated with me tonight.

Like the rest of the country, I find that one person’s extra-marital activities seemed to beg to be the subject of the day. That is, of course, our old friend, Tiger Woods.

It is a sad fact of the human condition that no one is perfect. We still admire famous people, and hope they haven’t been involved in any peccadillos that would tarnish their image. I had never heard anything bad about Tiger, until after his accident. It seemed to me that once that happened, the media picked at him until all of his nasty little secrets became public.

Now a waitress? from Las Vegas is mad because Tiger wasn’t only cheating on his wife with her, but was cheating with a number of other ladies as well. It doesn’t occur to her that maybe Tiger wasn’t so hot about fidelity, and that maybe if the wife couldn’t trust him, she shouldn’t either.

In any event, this drama is far from over. Even as I was writing this article, MSNBC was singing about the sponsors who were dumping Tiger because his image wasn’t as wholesome as they would have it be. I feel sorry for his wife. She would have to be embarrassed. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the 9 women who last count had enjoyed Tiger’s attentions. After all, they knew he had gone through that funny little ceremony called a wedding, and logic would dictate that his favors weren’t likely to be exclusive.

I also have some sympathy for his fans. I can remember how shocked and disappointed I was when I found out that the Beatles were human. I was just ten when they admitted taking LSD, and I was in high school when John Lennon married Yoko Ono, after his divorce from Cynthia. You have to understand that when I was younger, she seemed like the luckiest woman in the world, and I couldn’t imagine that John was anything but a loving, loyal husband.

I’m sure O.J. Simpson disappointed a lot of people who liked him and rented cars from Hertz because he told them it was the way to go. I think he did it, how about you? I can imagine a lot of people, probably including Hillary, would have been happy if Bill’s extra marital activities hadn’t been the subject of a national scandal. Chris Brown, Mel Gibson and Colby Bryant would certainly have preferred that their contributions to the seamier side of our culture had remained anonomous.

The odd thing is that I haven’t mentioned any person except O.J. whose public scandals are unheard of in every day life. In O. J.’s case, trying to steal sports memoribilia isn’t so abnormal, but chopping his ex’s head off was a bit extreme. However, Chris Brown’s and Colby Bryant’s violent behavior is all too common. Ditto, Bill’s and Tiger’s affairs.

The thing is, should these careers be destroyed or damaged? After all, we wouldn’t ask our car mechanic if he / she cheated on taxes or lied to his / her significant other. We wouldn’t expect any information about our doctor, except that he /she was good at medicine and could treat our ailments effectively. John Lennon didn’t really owe us his personal life. His brilliance as a musician was enough of a contribution to society. Bill Clinton may have had 2,000 affairs, but as long as he led our country effectively, we wouldn’t have much room to gripe.

Still, when celebrity misbehavior becomes public, it does effect all of us, and there is a big part of our hearts that wish they would let us continue thinking of them as angels.