Day Eighty-Four: Tiger Viewing

When did we get so mean? This absolute reveling in the downfall of the rich and famous? Obviously, there is something pruriently entertaining in the misfortune of those so fortunate. The glee is palpable. The vibe so raw with negative energy. Tiger certainly is not the first celebrity to fall from grace, nor will he be the last, but wow, are we mean or what?!

I was just upstairs, changing my youngest into pajamas while watching the end of the evening news. As I was finishing up, one of the worst shows on t.v. blared across the 42 inch high definition screen- Entertainment Tonight. My hands were full and I couldn't turn the channel fast enough. The lead story? Was Tiger hiding out in a New York hotel suite with another mistress while his wife is taking care of his kids. Do they know? Of course not. Does it matter? Not one whit. Without any information, this is the lead story anyway. The headline sounds juicy. It grabs viewers and spins out the same personally embarrassing and painful information that makes the Woods family hide under their collective bed covers and in the hope that the world will go away. It won't. The muckrakers, the paparazzi and, ultimately the majority of the American public will still pry, still peek in the windows and still dance with zeal at the squirming rich and famous.

I'm all for the occasional zinger. We all deserve to be taken down a peg now and again. When we have become too big for our britches, we need to be reminded that we all put those britches on one leg at a time. The ability to laugh at ourselves is essential to our humanity. How else can we be compassionate and empathetic if we cannot see ourselves as part of one collective community with similar foibles and failings? The occasional zinger is not what is taking place here. It is the modern version of a public stoning or the lion eating the gladiator in the Colosseum. It is ugly and mean. For me, it has long ceased being funny.

This is not to say that I am above it all. If I am honest with myself, I have taken pleasure in the pain of others when those others have been less than kind to me. I have had that secret smirk on my face upon hearing some juicy gossip about someone who has made my sh#% list. I don't know if this is a personal failing or simply normal. I am not a saint nor have I ever professed to be one. Still, these were personal circumstances where I thought someone has deserved their comeuppance. The pleasure of public humiliation of people I have never met, will most likely never meet nor ever get to know on any real level escapes me. How can we place public people up on a pedestal and then expect them not to fall off? Maybe that is the point. The elevation of figures- sports heroes, politicians, movie stars, divas, and artists- to an unrealistic height may be just so we can push them off the proverbial 20 story building and hear them scream the whole way down.

Some people come back bigger and better for the experience. We as a collective seem to love that too. Americans love an underdog, or so the saying goes. Somehow, that is not the real story. The majority of people put through the paces of media torture have not made it out the other side. I genuinely feel sorry for Monica Lewinsky, Gary Hart, Amy Winehouse and the other hundreds of littered reputations of past celebrities. Whatever they may have done, short of criminal, they are human, as are we. They deserve a bit of compassion after the fall. It is something that we would all want if we were in their place. I will continue to try to ignore all the sordid details of the Tiger Wood story. It is virtually impossible if I am breathing, but I will try. For the sake of all of us, I hope you do too.