Tiger Woods--Clubs of wood and steel--Feet of clay

My wife Carrie and I were talking about this last night and saying we wonder how many kids have had their dreams shattered by Woods. I am sure he probably has enough money to last him a lifetime, but he may have to change his life style. How many sponsors are going to want to put megabucks in his pocket? Perhaps the makers of Viagra will, but General Motors and all the rest surely must be reconsidering their advertising budget. Tiger says he is going to take a sabbatical from golf. I wonder if golf is ready to take a sabbatical from Tiger.

Commentary: Picking the right heroes isn't easy when so many disappoint

By Taylor Batten The Charlotte Observer

Pete Rose took his sharp spikes and stomped on my heart. I still feel betrayed 20 years later.

Rose was my first hero, in the mid-1970s. Charlie Hustle. The heart and soul of my beloved Cincinnati Reds. Baseball's all-time hits leader.

Rose loved the game. He'd sprint to first base after a walk, fly head first into third to leg out a triple and plow into a catcher blocking home plate.

I spent dozens of hours of my childhood watching Rose and the Big Red Machine on TV. My dad and I would sit together, admiring Rose's passion and hustle. My dad gave me old Pete Rose baseball cards for Christmas, and I'd pour over sleeve after protective sleeve, memorizing his statistics.

I wanted to be just like him. My dream, like so many boys', was to play for the Cincinnati Reds, hitting the ball just like Rose, and never loafing, just like Rose.

So when I found out, with the rest of the world, that Rose had stained the game and his reputation forever by betting on baseball, it undercut my whole faith in people. Rose pierced my naïve, childish notion of heroes. If you can't trust Charlie Hustle, whom can you trust?

That newfound cynicism was proven right again and again. Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time? Perhaps, but also a guy who cheated on his wife and had a severe gambling problem. Bill Clinton, a singular political talent and brilliant policy wonk? Yes, but a president who will be remembered most for the recklessness that frittered away his potential for greatness. The athletes and celebrities, politicians and business leaders, who breached our trust and proved our adulation undeserved is quite a crowd. And it's not just the famous; priests, teachers and youth group leaders are too frequently in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Now comes Tiger Woods. The latest deity to be unmasked. Whether his private life should be private is a question for a different day; it has become public despite his best efforts. Tiger, apparently, did more than make one bad decision. If reports are true, he engaged in a years-long pattern of infidelity, including two months before his first child was born.

The image of perfection so carefully crafted by Tiger and his consultants is revealed for what it was: just an image. Even a guy who has it all - unparalleled talent, a bottomless wallet, a beautiful wife and two children who will look up to him adoringly and call him "Daddy" - fails himself and those around him.

So now an untold number of kids and adults have had their naïve notions of heroes pierced.

It's enough to make you give up on believing in anybody. Why have heroes, when they're sure to disappoint? Why invest trust in a person, only to be burned?

It sure feels safer sometimes to assume the worst about people. Less of a letdown that way.

Or maybe we need to adjust our expectations, and our definition of heroes. A hero isn't a guy who runs the bases aggressively. It isn't someone who can hit a little white ball far and straight, as much as I long to do that myself.

The true heroes are all around us. They are teaching our kids, they are protecting us in Afghanistan, they are ministering to the homeless, they are giving coats to coat drives, they are comforting the Alzheimer's patient. They are human, too, and they will disappoint. But the entirety of their lives is a reminder that letting a celebrity's foibles jade us is to close our eyes to the good in the world. Thinking the worst of everyone is a poisonous, energy-sapping way to go through life.

It is said that the pessimist is usually right, but that the optimist is the only one who gets anything done.

Similarly, it's understandable to think everyone's a scoundrel. If you think that way, as I'm often tempted to do, you'll regularly find evidence that you think proves you right. But you'll miss the beauty that's all around you, and the people who are creating it.

The Power of Ten

A few days ago I was watching the evening news when they ran a story about a group calling themselves “Secret Santas. It is not they are so “secret”, but they do go around giving gifts of at least one hundred dollars to people they feel are in need of a helping hand from a Secret Santa. They look for recipients in thrift shops, Salvation Army stores, senior centers, etc. and they are presented an unconditional gift. In one instance last night, an elderly woman who could not always afford to buy heating oil was given $400.

As I watched, I thought this was a wonderful idea, but why limit it to the holiday season? What if people would take a small amount of money and multiply it by ten and present that money to some deserving soul? What if they did this every month of the year?

The idea of The Power of Ten has been playing around in my head. What if you and nine of your friends got together and each of you gave $10. Well, you would have $100—The Power of Ten. If you did this once a month, your group could give away $1,000 in ten months—The Power of Ten. Now think about this, if each member of your group formed another group of ten, now these ten groups can provide $1,000 a month—The Power of Ten. Now a hundred dollars doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but if you don’t have enough to provide for life’s simple necessities, a hundred dollars is a fortune.

And so there is the possibility of exponential giving for a very small investment on your part. Maybe I am being a silly, but I would be interested in your feedback. If enough people agree, I would like to flesh out this idea, form a group of ten and start.

My email: sailorguy@comcast.net