What perfect timing to express my feelings on the recent apology of Tiger Woods on national television. My first post was on how confession will bring forgiveness. In that example I was specifically speaking of steroids. However, I made it a point that it applies not only to illegal substances, but anything, including infidelity. Now some may probably think I'm contradicting myself after Tiger's apology, but I still stand 100% behind my point. There will always be a group of the "unforgiving" who could care less about a public confession. Even though millions found it in them to forgive A-Rod of steroid abuse, there is still a large amount who will never forgive him. The same applies to Tiger.
In the beginning of his apology he said, "everyone has the right to be critical of me." And many have taken advantage of that. Since his apology, I've heard countless opinions on Tiger's sincerity and I respect every single opinion. In return, I hope mine is respected. So here it is:
I've watched his entire interview 5 different times. Each one for a reason.
1st- Live. Just wanted to listen
2nd- His body language and gestures
3rd- Counting how many times he looked down
4th- Understand his targets for the apology
5th- Listen to the word usage and tone of voice
The first encounter was interesting. I pulled out plenty of observations but it was too much to come to any conclusion of my final judgement. From his body language I only pulled out one gesture in the 14 minutes. He put his hand on his heart. Every other word expressed had his hands on the pulpit. Counting the number of times his head went down was a big surprise. To be exact I counted 200 times he looked down at his paper and back up! That means he averaged looking down every 4 seconds. While apologizing he made it a point to say sorry to his family, friends, fellow golfers, sponsors, fans, parents of children, and himself. So basically, everybody. And my last time listening I came to the conclusion that he used weird words and emphasized words at weird times. I also found very little emotion in his overall apology and it just seemed robotic. With all this said and observed, many may think I throw the bull crap flag on Tiger. But even with all the negativity I can pull out, I forgive him! I'm sure my forgiveness means nothing to him. He doesn't even need my apology! But he publically asked for it, so I might as well give it. Yes, he could've improved on so many aspects. In my opinion, he should've written down bullet points, and then expressed his feelings on the spot, giving him a chance to show a little more emotion. He could've been better with the body language and the word usage. He could've taken questions for a little bit. He could've cried. He could've looked directly into the camera more. He could've done so much more, but he didn't. And guess what? Who cares! Tiger may be different than many people. He just may not be that emotional. Yes he may show extreme emotion on the golf course, but that's a completely different emotion at a completely different stage. We're all the same as well. We have some emotions that our stronger than our others. The best thing Tiger did was to repeat over and over that the personal issues are between him and his wife. He did his part in apologizing and we should do our part in accepting it, or at least believe in him. We have very little room to criticize the way he speaks or looks and base our judgement solely on that. If he happens to fall prey again to such an immoral act, then there's room for questioning his integrity. But for now, I feel it's the best to just give him a chance and believe that he can improve. He's the most dominate ahtlete in his sport on this earth, and there's a lot on his plate. I enjoy watching him in his craft and I know that my acceptance of his apology may have little, if any, meaning to him. But with the help of millions of people on the earth in believeing, we can help restore feelings of confidence, hope, and excitement back in the life of a HUMAN BEING who makes mistakes, just as we do.
No comments:
Post a Comment