White Ball, Accountability and Action's

After 2 days of endless dissection of the "Tiger Woods" apology, I feel the need to express my opinion. I have had my "opinions" of his actions and I have my opinion of his talent. Here are a couple of observations that I have made regarding this personal yet very public issue.

1. He is a MAN that has been blessed with the amazing talent to hit a small white ball with a stick, down a green grass field, sometimes over water and sand toward a flag perched into a small round hole. I have played this sport and I know it takes practice and talent. It can appear boring but it is a VERY competitive sport and unlike other sports can be played very late in life.

2. He was "forced" or "encouraged" at a very early age to improve and showcase these talents. He was a wonder to us all with his cute little smile and the love he showed his family. Do you remember when he won the Masters for the first time?? Even if you don't care for golf, you have to admit the tear in your eye as he celebrated with his dad. This started the attitude that "You are above the rules, laws and moral accountability" he was forced into "role model" status because we think you have to be famous or extremely talented to be "hero" status these days. Do any of us "normal" meaning (non famous, average talented, only a hero to our kids) have the right to discuss his "personal" or bad "moral" decisions made off the green grass field??? Why is he held to a higher standard than the "normal" people choosing to dissect every word of a statement he was forced to make.

3. I find it very interesting that this was the MOST IMPORTANT topic on Friday afternoon. It appeared that EVERYONE stopped to listen to what he had to say, as if it would once again give us a "warm fuzzy feeling" would he make it all right?? could we just forget??? give us an excuse, there has to be some reason this "MAN" this roll model, would make such a bad moral choice and disappoint the free world. Well, how did it make you feel? did you get validation that this hero would once again climb to the top of the white ball? will you allow your kids to continue golf lessons? Will you continue to watch on Sunday afternoon the MAN in the red shirt win the game??? Do we really need to take every word of his statement and analyze the meaning? Do we need to know who was in the room and why he did not answer questions? And the most famous opinion expressed after the statement. "How long did he hug his mom and what did she say to him?"

Here is my OPINION on this topic and I am off the subject forever!

1. He made a moral decision, YES he made the choice. He is the one that has to live with the decision that it was wrong. He needs to be a hero to his children not the world!

2. He is very talented and needs to chase the white ball again! live his life without greed and fame and I bet his game of golf game will improve.

3. Look around you and ask yourself? Do we have the moral right to put that kind of pressure on one man??? Put a person in HERO status, simply because he has been blessed with talent, fame, money? Do we the public have the right to allow this to be the topic the entire Country is talking about. Do our children need to be exposed to his BAD MORAL choices. Is this really that news worthy???? Do we have the right to know about his personal issues good or bad????? Do we need to make a choice???? Maybe turn off the media?

4. Actions speak louder than words... If he wants to do the right thing he will by actions not words! He did this to his family, his wife, his children. This is HIS battle to fight. And our opinions do not matter. We will all watch again when he returns and I can assure you it will be the MOST important news event of the day. But is it really????

Beep, Beep, Beep.... I am thinking of you!

I find myself always thinking about the past as each date of a new month or a new year comes around. 2010 has been no exception, I find myself thinking, this time last year I was getting ready to sell our house. This time last month I was getting ready for Allison's surgery. This time last year I still had my dad. 5 years ago I was pregnant. It is always the same, with me marking the days of February off the calender with the same emotion every year. I will do this in March for the 1 year anniversary of my Dad passing and again starting in June thinking of where I was and what I was doing in 2005. All of these dates have deep life changing emotion attached to them.

There was a movie on tonight called "Grace is gone" with John Cusack. I try and censor myself from watching "Military theme" movies that deal with loss. However, I started watching and felt the need to keep watching. The story is about a father taking care of his two girls, while their mother was deployed with the Army. She is killed in action and he has the horrible task of telling his girls. He makes a decision to take off, drive to Florida and have "fun" at an amusement park before having to break his girls hearts. Both girls start to figure out that something is going on however, none of them want to discuss the inevitable. The youngest girl has a watch that has an alarm set at a specific time. Her mom and her both set these watches together so when the alarm went off the other would know that they were thinking of each other. As I was watching this it brought me back to a time when we were going through our fertility treatments with Allison and Mike had his watch set for 7PM. Every night the alarm would go off to signal it was time for my shots. Long after Allison was born the alarm would go off. I asked him one day "months" after she was born, why he still had the alarm on? And his answer was simple that when the alarm went off he would smile and remember how important the beep beep beep was.

I am glad for the little beep, beep, beep's in my life that allow me to remember how many times I have had to watch the flag folded, Taps played and the horrific sound of gun fire. I want to feel that raw emotion that I witnessed on the faces of the Soldiers as they bury their brother. I want to remember the beautiful children that were forced to understand that freedom is not free and their life is forever changed because their dad is the true hero. I want to remember the millions of tears, the anger and the strength that we all found to support and take care of our own. I see the faces of these men each day as I look into my husband's eyes and still see the pain, honor and respect for these brother that were lost. So as we reach the days, months and years of our past, present and future listen for the little beep, beep, beep's stop and remember everyday the price some have paid so we are protected...

To our fallen hero's killed on February 18, 2007 and February 22, 2002 and to all the fallen everywhere we will never forget the sacrifice that you gave for our freedom. We miss you!!

NSDQ!