I don't even like golf ..

.. yet I find myself strangely obsessed with the Tiger Woods drama.

I'm also obsessed by the public obsession with this case, if that makes any sense.

Here's a guy who has everything, and he risked losing it all for some cheap thrills. What could have possibly driven him to step out on his beautiful wife? Why would he betray the mother of his children? How could he be so monumentally stupid?

His car wreck is, well, like a car wreck! I don't want to know any more tawdry details, but I can't help clicking on each link which breathlessly announces the latest dirt in this scandal.

At some level, I think all humans are pre-wired to do monumentally stupid things. I've been thinking about this quite a bit of late. The other day, I took care of a relatively young stroke patient. At this point in time, the patient suffers from both expressive and receptive aphasia. In other words, words fail him. His road to recovery will be long and rocky, and I feel deep pathos for this man and for his family. Their lives have been turned upside down.

On the day that I took care of this patient, my workload was blissfully light. I was able to accompany this man on a much-needed walk up and down the corridor. At the end of our ambulation session, the patient said something to the effect that he wished he could have picked up a carton of cigarettes on our walk.

~~~~ insert face-palm gesture here ~~~~

I don't know if smoking was the sole cause of this man's stroke, and it doesn't matter at this point, anyway.

But for those of us who take the ability to walk and talk and function independently for granted at this time .. there's a lesson in there! Be grateful for each unimpeded breath, and be really excellent to yourselves and to those whom you love.