Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I only want to see Tiger golf

So, why should we care about Tiger?

Unless you are the Dali Lama, you have at least heard of Tiger Woods. Even women whose husbands do not follow golf have heard of him.

Most people know him not just for his golfing abilities but also for when he made headlines when his car crashed over Thanksgiving weekend in 09, and it came out that he was cheating on his wife.

But, why should that matter? He was not hurting me, only his family, and the women with whom he was having affairs. You might think, "I just like watching him play golf. It's none of my business, right?"


Aren't those of us who say "What happens to Tiger's family is his business, I just want to see him play golf again", doing the same thing Tiger did with his family and the women he had affairs with? He was using them for his own pleasure, without respecting their dignity as human beings.

We say we want to see Mr. Woods, not because we feel compelled by his story, his longings, dreams, hurts and frustrations, but because we want to see him take over and win a golf tournament.

The golfing world is the same - they only want Tiger back because they are losing money. They just want to use him for their selfish reasons.

The sponsors also only want him to make money for them. They distance themselves when his 'image' is not helpful to them, but will take him back if he 'cleans up his image'.

But, the reality is that we can not control someone else, we only have charge of ourselves. In my own house, I have tried to manipulate my wife to do what I want....... you can guess how well that worked....and how that felt. And then later, how I felt when I realized what I had done.

We can tend to 'use' another person all too often in our world today, because we have grown up in a culture that teaches us that this is love. But, in reality, it is the opposite of love. Contrary to popular belief, the opposite of love is not hate - it is use. When we use someone as an object for our selfish pleasure - whether sexual pleasure, entertainment, or any other use, we do not love them. They are just a 'pawn' in our game of life.

We never like it when we are used that way, do we? That inner soul that knows we should not be used is what Pope John Paul II calls "the true dignity of the human person". That true dignity means that we are never meant to be used in this way. Every one of us is unique and unrepeatable. Imagine that - there are today 6 billion people alive, and going back 2,000 years, then 6,000 more, there have probably been 100 billion people on Earth. Even with all of these people, there has _never_ been anyone like you... ever.

God gives us unique gifts to be shared with each other- for His glory. But, we must never use another human being as a means to get to that end. When we do, not only do we hurt the dignity of the other person, we also hurt ourselves. We may not know it at the time, but we eventually we will.

That's why we should care about Tiger.