Tiger Woods: His Father's son
By Miguel Guanipa (07/27/06)
A story is told of a man who goes into a pawn shop to trade an old Bible he found in his basement. The shop keeper is astonished to find that what he holds in his hands is none other than a priceless Guttenberg Bible and offers the man a hefty sum of money in exchange for the rare item. As the man counts his profits from the sale he remarks: “this one is in pretty good shape. I found another one but I threw it away; some guy named Martin Luther scribbled all over it”.
The story is one told in jest, but it lays bare an interesting fact of life: we are often quite unaware of the true value of certain things; this is especially true after we lose them.
Recently, this fundamental principle was poignantly illustrated by Tiger Woods, whose greatest mentor, his father Earl, passed away in May 2006 after a long bout with cancer.
To an inquirer about his British Open victory, after which Tiger Woods buried his face on his caddie’s shoulder and wept, he candidly responded: “… at that moment it all came pouring out and all the things my father has meant to me and the game of golf. I just wish he could have seen it one more time”.
I suspect that if one was to ask Tiger Woods, he would render that it was not the thrill of victory that prompted this unscripted burst of emotion; but rather the thought of the enormous importance his father’s presence had had in his life that made his tears well up.
It is no small thing to see the best golf player in the world unintentionally vouch for the crucial significance of the central ingredient in that pillar of society we call the family: the Father; a figure often regarded by the social trendsetters of today’s milieu as peripheral at best.
From liberal pundits like Maureen Dowd, who wonder if in today’s sexual politics men are actually needed at all, to Julie and Hillary Goodridge , the homosexual couple whose lawsuit launched the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and have recently announced their “amicable” separation, today’s social engineers love to engage in the polemics of diversity which extol the blessings of voluntary one parent families; or the dual female or male mergers that bravely seek to redefine what they view as the outdated patriarchal structure that countless generations have dared to celebrate in a time gone by.
This idea is willingly reinforced by a media that loves to portray images of the pot-bellied, utterly clueless and disconnected father wistfully oblivious to the daily life dynamics of his more progressive offspring who regard him mostly as a rather disposable entity; a stereotype not entirely discouraged by post-modernity’s academics as they usher in a new world order that underscores the superfluity of the male figure and libertarian socialites who endlessly seek to reinvent the definition of family.
In fact, this could not be farther from the truth. A father is essential. And in a moment of candor spurred by the deepest affection for the one that had meant so much to him, Tiger Woods revealed the inherent absurdity in trying to redefine the very notion of what the term “Father” means, and how such a pernicious social experiment ultimately negates the vital importance he plays in the lives of his children.
When all is said and done, all children -including those who are fatherless -long for the presence of the one they can call father. One who reminds them that they came from somewhere; one who challenges them to exceed and whom they long to make proud; one from whom they can draw a sense of self-worth and belonging.
And who better to express this truth than Tiger Woods, in a few simple words when he most longed for his father’s presence: “I could not stop it; …I miss my dad so much”.
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