Tiger Woods

I have avoided using any celebrity gossip stories for my blog this semester but I saw a headline today that was the last straw for me. It said that Tiger Woods is taking a leave of absence from playing golf to sort out his marital problems. I'm so tired of hearing about this!

The article, found at Time.com, is very short and just talks about how Tiger is going to attempt to repair the damage his "infidelity" has caused to his family. There's not much to summarize really. That's about it.

There is a reason I picked this one though. I'm so tired of hearing about this whole story. It's sickening that the media and those of us who read these stories just latch on to another person's failures and absolutely beat them into the ground and still keep going.

I think that this story is being so widely publicized because Tiger was one of those rare celebrities who we thought had it all- talent, an amazing career, money, a beautiful family. He was living what we saw as a dream, the ultimate kind of life. And it's human nature to want to see those perfect people crack and fail.

I think so many of us get satisfaction out of watching a perfect person crumble. It makes him more real to us, more like one of us. And when that person is a celebrity, with everything he does closely scrutinized, it's even more selfishly satisfying.

I feel nothing but sympathy for Tiger and his family. I can't imagine what kind of state I would be in if allegations like this came out about my husband. I don't think I could function in my day to day routine. I feel the most sympathy for his wife and children. Tiger made some mistakes, but I hope that this time away from the limelight will help them come to some sort of understanding, whatever the outcome may be.

I heard on the news this morning that Tiger's wife bought a house on some secluded island to escape the media attention. I say good for her. I hope that, with efforts like this one, that they are able the get away from all of the attention and work on their marriage.

Maybe if they get away for awhile, another celebrity will do something stupid and take the attention away from Tiger and his family. That seems to be the way it usually happens anyway. After all, we are all just human.