Insane Ability Should Never Be More Important than the Person You Are

I enjoy sports, a lot. My heart was breaking for Butler, and I have enough loyalty to my own school (go UK!), to hate Duke merely for the fact they beat us 104-103 (damn that Laettner). And one of my fondest memories is celebrating Dad's alma-mater's victory via an ally oop to Lorenzo Charles in NC State's Cinderella 1983 NCAA championship. I'll never forget Jimmy Valvano running around the basketball court like a child, so excited. Heck, Ed and I named our 2nd dog Ripken after Ed's favorite baseball player, Cal Ripken. Our second choice, my favorite player as a kid, the Atlanta Brave's Dale Murphy.

Still, I realize sports-prowess is effort + natural ability + hard work + a well-formed body. Effort and hard work are up to the player; the other two are something you either get or you don't. You don't get credit for it, and you certainly need it to be in the upper echelon of athletes. So why does this person with a God-given gift think they are above it all? Tiger Woods disappeared for a couple of months after acting like a completely self-obsessed jerk (and clearly having spent the majority of his time lifting weights!) and he's a golf-god again. Does anyone even remember that Kobe Bryant was accused of rape not that long ago? And Steve McNair, long thought to be one of the more upstanding athletes, ends up being shot by his mistress and all his secret life coming out. Can a man, any man, that believes himself to be above it all be a good guy?

It's not just the sports world... politicians have become a parody of themselves as have CEO's (Jack Welch, you managed to make GE an empire... yet as a person, total scum) and actors. Is it power alone? Do all of these guys get so powerful they have a true sense of nothing being able to touch them? If that's the price/benefit of power, I'll take my own powerless life ANY day.

And seriously, what female thinks they can change these guys!?! Sandra Bullock, I'd feel a lot worse for you if Jesse James hadn't already been, well... Jesse James. He was married to a former porn star and had custody of the children from that relationship because she was so worthless. Really? I'd have run like Hell in the other direction. But I guess I'm just boring. Sadly, I wanted to believe as much as anybody else Jesse had changed, wild oats sewn. Gullible or hopeful? I'm just not sure.

Final thought. I was so pissed to have a reporter on Good Morning America cover the story of Tiger when it was first developing. She actually attempted to blame Elin and remind all the ladies out there to make sure and keep it interesting for your man, suggesting that Tiger probably got bored with a wife with two small children. Really? It took 14 women to "scratch his itch"... let's blame the wife at home with two kids. She didn't create those kids all by herself. Have you seen Elin? How many men stray from that?

Ed doesn't understand why human behavior so intrigues me. Why spend so much time being baffled by human choices? But, I truly am. I'm glad there are people out there working on the cure for cancer, looking into global warming and possible solutions, etc. It was never my interest, my passion. I wish it was. I think in some ways, those would be easier to figure out than people.