Tiger Not out of the Woods Yet

I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting with bated breath to hear the next installment of the Tiger Woods drama. Like every steamy bit of gossip we receive through the tabloids and newspapers, we are shocked, dismayed, incredulous. Even when we're aware nobody is infallible (and certainly not celebrities). Everyone has done at least one stupid thing they regret in their lives. Great fodder for memoirs, really.

But here's the catch: eagerly participating in listening to these tales of woe can make an otherwise ethical person feel downright guilty! How dare we want to hear more, the juicier the better? Or perhaps we devise our our own judge and jury system (Tiger's wife found out about his affairs. She chased him down the road, swinging his golf clubs at his SUV). Either way, we're ashamed to think we enjoy another person's misery.

Enter fiction. Ah, yes. Now we can read about people's failures, their deviant behavior, lack of morals, and not feel guilty! That's right. Or...even better...we can write about those kind of people without ever becoming one of them! (And if we were that type of person once, a long, long time ago, we don't have to admit to it. It's only a character we're writing about, right?)

So, I apologize Tiger Woods, for keeping up on your sordid life, and speculating on your behavior. I'm sorry I've kept track of your ups and downs even though I never watched even one of your golf games. But you're interesting, now. Like a character in a book. The difference being that the fictional character isn't hurting anyone.