Since when does Tiger Woods owe me an apology for his personal behavior? I don’t know him or his wife, and yet—according to today’s etiquette—he’s supposed to confess to me?
Is anyone else tired of this public self-flagellation that we now require of our public personalities?
I used to watch these events, but finally stopped after I saw the look on Silda Spitzer’s face in New York when her husband resigned as governor. The searing pain was unforgettable. I couldn’t figure out at the time why her expression haunted me. Now I know: we should not be privy to such private moments in the lives of other people, regardless of who they are.
Imagine cameras on our faces, catching us at the saddest, most disappointing moments in our lives.
We are a cruel society, tossing up some of our most beloved figures to the lions’ den as soon as we learn they’ve done something outside our sexual norms (defined by whom I’m not sure). We are unforgiving, extracting public humiliation for “sins” older than the Bible.
I learned as a child that there were personal sides of my life that belonged only to me. This lesson is now obsolete. Our children learn that it’s O.K. to expose that which is most private and to destroy other people's lives and their families along the way.
So I didn’t watch Tiger. I read enough of what he said to feel sorry for him that he felt pressured to say anything. He’s a great golfer, his gift to the world.
Why can’t we leave it at that?
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