ELDER TALK: TIGER WOODS

I disagree. I include myself among the masses who know nothing of Tiger Woods' inner life. Marriage is a revelatory arrangement. It is a covenant altered over the span of the globe, and history by the understanding of each tribe or culture's relationship with the Earth energies of their homeland, and their understanding of the Creative forces of the Creator. Marriage primarily serves two masters: economics and intimacy. This brother and sister relationship has had to submit itself to laws that contain the fiery passions of our need for intimacy, and vulnerability, and the economic realities of surviving, and in wealthy countries, like the United States, living above and beyond mere existence.

Most of Tiger Woods’ detractors are coming out of the woodwork, cowardly, because they have found a weakness within the giant, the impeccable giant they fear because the level of impeccability developed within Tiger Woods lies dormant within average people. Everyone who has trained their minds, bodies, spirits, and molded their emotions into a mature state recognize the fragility of being too comfortable with their strengths. Weakness is part of every giant, and every weakness requires observation, and work, and weakness requires a sacred space to develop into strength. Where does a man like Tiger Woods go for sanctuary? Who creates sacred place for him? Who provides a spiritual covering for him? Who can he confide in exposing the deeper chambers of his being without a Delilah showing his weakness to the jowls of the raging beasts outside of his domain?

The greatest challenge as an American celebrity is privacy, and the deep level of disrespect accorded them by average under-achievers who call themselves fans. Tiger Woods’ fan base is composed of a life-force fed by a business that feeds gossips, and into the minds of people who worship mediocrity speculation replaces objectivity, compassion, understanding, and in the end a better soul is not nourished into its higher destiny.

Black Americans have profound trouble in the arena of identity. African-American, the title worn fought a hard battle to be accepted by a people defined by a color, a subservient mentality, and a deep sense of not belonging. Deep into dysfunctional relationships with white Americans there has not been a pause taken advantage of to access the soul loss of a people who despise any blood allegiance of Black Americans who recognize their Native-American, Asian, White, Brazilian or any other bloodlines. It is a bitter truth. And for Black American’s to stand on the world stage and condemn Tiger Woods for not having black lovers is the high definition of a jacked-up paradigm, a testament of soul loss, and the clearest indicator of our inability to become a major world player of power.

Our criticism of Tiger Woods is revelatory, and places us beneath the butt of countless jokes behind our backs, and in the eye of insightful criticism on the world stage. –Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Elders Gathering in Greenland 2009