I watched
the mea culpa of Tiger Woods this morning, all 14 or so minutes of it.  It was definitely the material of a country
song.  I am glad Tiger has begun to own his problems and misbehavior, though frankly I am not
sure immoral behavior qualifies as a disease— ‘sex addiction’, in the same
way alcoholism is a disease.  More likely
its obsessive compulsive narcissistic behavior. 
But it is a good thing Tiger has begun to come clean, and he is right to
try and protect his family from the vultures in the press, who frankly do not
have a right to his full confession, nor should they be hounding his
family.  But then if enough of us would
profoundly protest to the media that we don’t want to see or hear about such
garbage, maybe the feeding frenzy when it comes to dirty laundry would slow
down.  It is after all ratings and money
that drives such soap opera materials on the TV, and so ultimately some of us
are a huge part of the problem.  I wrote
a little ditty on the blog earlier this week called Grave Diggers about the
paparazzi. I suspect about now Tiger would pronounce the Amen to that poem.  But the Tiger Woods real life saga in various
strange ways parallels the Bad Blake saga recounted in the recent movie Crazy
Heart, about which this post will now reflect.

            If you saw
the movie ‘the Wrestler’ the plot of ‘Crazy Heart’ is by now familiar.  Broken down old entertainer tries for
comeback, reconciliation with family member, etc. with an ending that suits a
country song. Only Crazy Heart has far more star power– Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell
(as a country singer???  Who would have
believed it?)  Robert Duvall (a producer
of the film), and a winsome Maggie Gyllenhaal. And shoot, the country tunes
aren’t half bad, and occasionally Jeff Bridges shows he can sing them.  But his dissolute life of drinking and
smoking and playing dirty bars and bowling alleys is not appealing at all.   I must admit that I had not envisioned the ‘So
Cal’ Dude being able to pull off a Waylon Jennings thing, but then, he is a
good actor, and frankly he deserves his Oscar nomination for best actor in this
film.  It is that believable and well
done. 

The movie has already been well
reviewed but here there is some room for reflection about what love can do to
you— it can even make you want to clean up your act and clean up your life as
well.  And in this case…. it does finally
motivate Bad Blake to do so.  But even a
love that sets you free may not produce a happy ending after so much
misbehavior over so long a period of time. 
The attempt at reconciliation with a long lost son fails….. and what
Blake mainly gets out of his rehab  besides a new lease on life is more fodder for
his country songs. 

Bad also gets in some apt digs at
the current MOR half rock, half pop, half country products that come out of
Nashville and its star maker machinery.  Take
for example Taylor Swift.  That girl can’t
sing worth a dime… and they have turned her into star instead of a pretty good
song writer.  She embarrassed herself
singing with Stevie Nicks on the Grammies a few weeks ago, being way out of
tune, and she embarrassed herself before that on a show in January.  She needs some seasoning, and a reality check
just like Bad Blake.  As they say down in
the country— she ain’t no Carrie Underwood, if we are talking about her
singin’ ability.  And I’m not talking
about having an operatic voice, I’m just saying that even within the parameters
of what counts as good country singing, live and in color, she can’t deliver.  She needs some voice lessons….etc.

Like a  country song, this post has wandered a bit,
but after a surprising chorus its time to return to the main tune.  Country songs deal with real life, including
its worst and most immoral aspects.  No
one asks for them not to do so. That would be like asking a Bluesman like B.B. King
to stop playing in minor keys.  Lost love
and lonesomeness and squandered opportunities are the stock and trade of such
music.  But just because its real, doesn’t
make the actions described worth emulating or admiring.  

Tiger Woods is now living a soap opera
instead of living his dream. Let’s hope and pray that he keeps going forward in
the right direction.  He said something
profound at his press conference that Bad Blake could have stood to hear—-
when money and fame come your way, you begin to mistakenly believe you are
special, and that the regular rules of life and love and morality don’t apply
to you.  You begin to believe what your
sychophants tell you is true, and so you believe you can get away with
anything, with no accountability.  But frankly, sin always has consequences,
negative consequences, and what a person does when he thinks no one is watching
and when he thinks he is bullet proof, most reveals that person’s character—-
whether you’re Bad Blake,  or Tiger
Woods.  The good news is— grace
happens, if you know where to find it.