Notwithstanding the public's insatiable curiosity for the details of celebrities' lives, sometimes a car accident is just a car accident.... We have asked Tiger a great many questions over the years, and for the most part, he has answered them -- about his health, about his race, about his family. But those questions all had some connection to his public life as an athlete. The state of his marriage, much as it might pique our voyeuristic instincts, does not.
We LOVE it when our heroes topple from the pedestals we've placed them on, don't we? Is it that their suffering and human frailty makes us feel better about our miserable, pointless, and excessively mediocre existence? Is it that condemning behavior in others that we would never dream in condemning ourselves makes us feel superior, if only fleetingly? Or is it just that obsessing over the personal lives and foibles of celebrities takes our mind of our own misery? Really; the idea of adultery and infidelity is neither a new nor novel concept. Men (and women) have been schtupping people other than their spouses or partners since we discovered sex. Yes, once we discovered that a man's penis and a woman's vagina can be a fun, exciting, and stimulating combination, we've been banging the crap out of one another. You don't have to be a celebrity to be a horn dog; zipper problems know no economic, social, or athletic boundaries. Still, we're fascinated by the idea of a celebrity committing sins of the flesh...like we wouldn't do the exact same thing if faced with the same opportunity.
Unfortunately, we now live in a world where a public life and personal privacy seems to be considered mutually exclusive. If someone is successful, if they make their name and their living in a public setting...well, they've forfeited their right to freedom, eh? Tiger Woods is but the latest example of our cultural obsession with all things celebrity-related. If someone gets their face on television, their name in the newspaper, and/or their voice on the radio, their lives become public property, with every minute detail open and available for public scrutiny of the most intense and unfair nature. Why? Because we said so, that's why.
It's easy to forget that celebrities are in many respects like you and me. They put their pants on one leg at a time, they have bills to pay, families to support, and dreams to chase. That's they've achieved a measure of success and fame shouldn't necessarily be taken as license for John Q. Public to analyze, ruminate over, and pass judgment on their flaws and foibles. The level of scrutiny that Tiger Woods is being subjected to is neither fair nor reasonable nor respectful of his right to live his life as a private human being.
Sometimes, a car accident really is just that. Sometimes, people screw up. How many of us would want our f--k-ups to become fodder for public discussion and recrimination? While no reasonable person would countenance infidelity and adultery, no one but the people involved can know what happens within the bounds of a marriage. How two adults nurture (or screw up) a marriage is something that those outside that relationship can only speculate about without ever having any real hope of knowing what they're talking about.
Perhaps if we devoted more attention to nurturing and chasing our own dreams we'd be less wrapped up in living vicariously through others. Just sayin'....
