12.16.2009

Tiger Woods .. What Did We Learn?

I don't normally respond to current events and what people are discussing, because that's not where the joy in life lies for me. But life is, afterall, about choices, and we seem to be making some interesting choices about how we see this social debacle called Tiger Woods and His Infidelity. The media has their spin on the whole mess, and each individual has theirs.

I was curious to see if anyone had the same take on this 'Tiger hoopla' as I do, so I started reading both media comments and general public comments. I perused hundreds of posts on half a dozen different web sites. I read until I could stand to read not another single comment. In all those posts I could find no other who saw the things I did, though a few did offer up a few compassionate 'leave the poor guy alone' comments. Note that I didn't find any word about Tiger at all on the web sites I commonly frequent .. no surprise there. :p

Still curious, I asked my daughter "what did we learn from Tiger Woods and the events surrounding him this past week?" At first she replied "not to be adulterous?" Given the more or less exasperated look on my face she must have realized that was not the response I was looking for. Searching deeper she replied "that he's human?"

That he's human. Which is indeed, in my opinion, exactly what was/is there to be learned. Despite common opinions about Tiger Woods and the stirred-up emotions around him, the real issue isn't infidelity. It isn't whether he did something or didn't do something. It isn't about privacy or one's right to privacy. It isn't about endorsements. It isn't about any of that, though the media circus that has busses, trailers and reporters huddled around his home 'compound' would have us believe otherwise. It has to do with being human. If we can boil each other down to an essence, to the one thing we all have in common here on this planet in all our third dimensional glory, it is that we are all human.

Being Human, at this moment in time, means that we are all subject to the same duality, the same polarity, the same density, the same karmic laws, the same societal judgements, the same habits, the same patternings, the same blind reactions, the same history. All of us. You and I, and you and I and Tiger, are not so different after all, are we? Because he plays golf better than we do, better arguably than anyone alive, what does that mean exactly? It means this: It means he plays golf really well. That's what it means. That's all that it means.

Does it mean Tiger is faithful to his wife? Does it mean he ought to be? Does it mean we have a right to judge him for his life, for his choices? Tiger's wife might care, Tiger might care, but to anyone else—anyone else—it really does not matter. At all. Those are questions the rest of us don't get to ask. Why would we even want to?

There are so many wake-up calls being sounded at this time that Tiger's is only a tiny example among many. The question is, when are we going to stop trying to live each other's life and start focusing on our own? We are so astounded that Tiger "could do such a thing" .. why? Because now that he's so clearly demonstrated that he's a human being like the rest of us—and not the icon of perfection that he has been made out to be, even paid to be—all of a sudden we can no longer count on him to tell us which clothing line to wear? which car to drive? which razor to shave with? which burger to eat or soda to drink? what sports equipment to use? Why do we entrust any human being—other than ourself—with such power?

Isn't it time we stopped expecting other people to make our decisions for us, and instead make and take responsibility for our own? Isn't it time we stopped expecting each other, any other, to not be the human being that we/they are? Might we want to raise the standard of what it means to be human? Absolutely! But ridicule and denigrate those who have that very human side exposed to the rest of us? No. Follow along blindly when the media decides to cash in on some drama that's unfolding? No. Isn't it time we started deciding for ourselves what to think, what to do, how to behave?

It's really so simple, but we can't see it until we step out of duality, out of right and wrong, out of good and bad, out of shoulds and oughtas, and allow each other to live the life that we each came here to live. We came here to help Earth and everything and everyone on her to ascend to a higher vibration. We came here to live our human lives as the Spirit that we are. We came here to enjoy life, to enjoy being human, to enjoy Earth and to enjoy each other. We did not come here to tell each other how to live, nor did we come here to tell each other what to do, or what not to do. Those are decisions each individual makes for themselves.

Living life is what we each do, according to our own desires, our own inspiration, our own choices. Let us now—right now—determine to allow each other to do that in joy and in love, even when another's life doesn't look like we think it should. Let us take responsibility for our own life, our own choices and nothing more. Let us honor each other by allowing all of us to do the same, without foisting upon each other—or even ourselves—our righteous indignation.

If we learn nothing else from watching Tiger writhe under public scrutiny, let us learn that we are the most amazing, most wonderful, most interesting, most exciting species to grace physical reality in all of our Universe. We are all Human, and we really are all the same. Tiger is me. Tiger is you. You are me. I am you. Can we not love and allow each other the space to express what it means to be human, without judgement and without blame? I say we can.

In fact, I'm going to say something bold here. I'm going to say that despite what it looks like in the media and through common indicators, that we already are, by intent and by action, giving each other the space to be human, creating and moving into a unified future. It might not look like it, but looks can be deceiving. Just because raising consciousness doesn't get press, and those who are raising consciousness don't respond to drama, doesn't mean amazing and wonderful things aren't happening. They are! Isn't it exciting to be a part of that?

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