Mea Spin-a?
Radbam February 28th, 2010
Tiger Wood’s poignant, highly-scripted and meticulously controlled confession-qua-press conference was remarkable in its diversity of need and intent. It managed to simultaneously serve as narrative arc closure, fulfillment of one of 12 steps and sufficient contrition to satisfy skittish corporate sponsors. He blended therapeutic accountability with moral awareness, adding a pinch of Eastern spirituality as answer to the Brit Humes of the world who see redemption as the exclusive province of Jesus’ hematology.
But the question remains: Did he sell it? Or less crassly, was he sincere? Or more pointedly for his Q-rating, was he perceived as sincere? The authenticity of confession and repentance is highly subjective, often assessed more in the eye of the beholder in a world in which we can never know the recesses of another’s heart. So apart from the ability to, ala Woody Allen, metaphysically cheat by looking into the soul of our classmate, how do we assess the truth and quality of contrition?
On the most obvious elements, Tiger seems to have succeeded. He looked visibly shaken, choking up at all the right pregnant pauses. He apologized repeatedly and without qualification, prompting a sports marketer to characterize the statement as a “mea culpa on steroids.” And he pled his case in front of his mother, a virtual guarantee of sincerity from all except the most sociopathic.
But there is one element that was perhaps most telling of Tiger’s intent and potential to follow through. In offering the view of the most victimized party, his wife Elin, Tiger recounted her insistence that his future actions would determine the sincerity of his vow. This is more than merely a cliche or self-help, common sense remedy. For many faith traditions, especially Judaism , it is the essence of true repentance.
Repentance is one of those squishy words signifying various things to various people. For many, it is an abstraction devoid of real meaning. But for Jews, repentance, or teshuvah, is a process rather than state of being. Teshuvah literally means return, rich with connotations of return to the right path, our best selves or God. This far more direct, unequivocal sense is realized in a 3 part process. First, there is awareness of misdeeds, faults, and a willingness to change. Second, there is public confession and vow to change, confirmed by witness to combat rationalization. And finally, often long after the initial stages, a similar opportunity to err arises and a different, hopefully better course is taken.
Tiger seemed to embrace well the first 2 steps of this original 3 step program (the other 9 steps are commentary?). And as Elin attests, the proof will be in more than the pouting. But it is a hopeful sign that Tiger pursues multiple paths to personal redemption beyond exclusive and slavish reliance on either new-age transformational trippiness or the bloodless discourse of psychotherapy. Tiger’s possibilities are grrrrrrrrrr-eat!
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- Comments(6)
Dear Dan,
This was a really good commentary. I enjoyed your Woody Allen reference. Your affirmation of Teshuvah in Jewish tradition was very significant. I really think that you could work this into either a sermon or a bulletin article. It’s that important.
Very good. Bill Maher had a great article on the same topic as well. An excerpt “…if I was a golfer, I’d go with Jesus-because he’s a Trinity, so when you walk with him, you’ve got a foursome.”
The only question is…What time is his next tee time!
Be part of the solution, not the problem…it’s your incessant need for perfection that drove him to believe his own hype and do a Heff impression…that, and too much pressure, too young to conform and settle down…
Marty,
Already a bulletin article.
Aaron,
Great Maher commentary…if only he wasn’t so pathologically anti-religious, I could take his quip more comfortably…
Excellent post thank you!