An Open Letter To Tiger Woods

Dear Tiger,

The biggest mistake you have made up until now was NOT to be a sex addict but to have gotten married and to have created a family when you clearly were aware of your addiction.

The public thinks you are a cad not just because you have slept with so many women in such a short space of time.
Or even that you had them all more or less overlapping during the same period.
The public thinks you are a cad because you had all those women while you were less than five years into your marriage, while your wife is still a youthful desirable partner, while your kids were just being born.
You had all that extramarital sex while your beloved father was dying of cancer.
You did not even consider protecting your wife and new borns from sexually transmitted diseases.

Ya, we understand athletes by and large, have very high testosterone levels in their blood.
Hence, they are agressive competitors in their field of sports.
Ya, we understand high testosterone levels also can express as high libidos.

We understand the man who has an extramarital affair with someone compelling, like a "soulmate".
We understand unfortunate cases where the man meets his true love match after he had already married someone else.
We understand an ocassional fling with a sexy thing.
We understand a man is a man and a man has to do what a man has got to do.
We don't like it but we understand.
We DO not understand however, how anyone who has such a busy, successful career and family life can find the time, energy and drive to have so much sex with so many different partners?

The good news here is you have wonderful time management skills.
The bad news here is you have been thinking with the wrong head.
How did it not occur to you that those ladies who had the karma to "put a Tiger in their tanks" would sell their stories some day?

People with any kind of addiction - sex, drug, alchohol, substance, gambling - should not get married simply because they cannot make the sacrifices necessary for a happy family life.

Yet these people get married time and time again.
Talk forums are asking "Why do married people cheat?"
Because they cannot commit to a single sex partner?
Because the sex is not satisfying in their marriage?
Because they fall in love over and over again with different people during the course of being married to one woman?
Because they can?
Because they think they can get away with it?

Why then do these people get married in the first place?
Hats off to people like Simon Cowell who is on record for saying he will not get married because he cannot commit to one woman.
Again, why do these people get married in the first place?
Because they need a sense of belonging to someone exclusively (and Simon doesn't)?
Because they need a sense that someone belongs to them exclusively (and Simon doesn't)?
Because they want to feel secure in a meaningful, lasting, relationship (and Simon doesn't)?
Because they want children?

What you should do now is NOT to continue to hide from the world because of your shame or embarassment at being exposed.
It would be a sheer waste of your celebrity for you to fade away into obscurity or ignominy.

Tiger, you should own this problem, take this problem by its horns and wrestle it to the ground for all it's worth.
Talk about this addiction. Not many know this addiction even exists.
Since you cannot be left alone even if you want the earth to open up and swallow you, you might as well turn the disadvantage of negative publicity around.
Preempt any attempts for any more 'blackmailing' incidents or calculated embarassing exposes.

So what if there are naked photos of you out there?
You probably have a good looking body anyway, nothing to be ashamed of.
So what if there are even sex videos of you out there?
It never is as humiliating for a man as it is for a woman.
Unless of course you are a poor lover which I don't think you are or else you wouldn't have so many women lusting after you, money or no money.

Enough of being private Tiger already!
Write a book about sex addiction.
Do the talk show circuit.
Do Oprah.
Take questions.
Help others with the same addiction.
Be a poster boy for sex addiction.

It's not golf you should take time off while you focus on being a family man and a better person.
Golf has been good to you and will continue being good to you.
Golf is even good FOR you as it helps with discipline and you need to be doing something you are good at to maintain a healthy self-image, self-esteem, self-worth, etc.
Without golf you will find it even more challenging to redirect your high energy away from destructive past times/hobbies.
Golf is one way to harness this energy.
I shudder to think what you would have done with yourself if it hadn't been for golf.
I am also gobsmacked wondering what more you could have achieved in your sports had you not been up to your shenanigans.

What you should be taking time off is your sex addiction.
Use that time and energy instead on working to educate the public on what sex addiction is.
So people won't look at you in quite the same way as they did before.
So it'll be like Bill Clinton before and after Monica Lewinsky.
But look at Bill Clinton today.
He focussed on his Clinton Global Initiative and forced the world to focus on that too.

It's time to stop dwelling on what you have lost.
You are still Tiger Woods - AP's athlete of the decade.
It's time to start focussing on what good might come out of this so-called loss.
Not for you alone but for other people like you out there.
I say "so called" because the universe works in mysterious ways.
We all have our demons to conquer, our crosses to bear.
We all have to work on the "Seven Deadly Sins" so to speak.
We are all works in progress.

Sincerely,
mEinah

P/S With the multi-million dollars in various pay offs and compensations for all your women, including your wife, you appear to be the biggest loser in this shenanigan. Millions of women all over the world suffer the same fate as your wife and children but get no similar monetary consolations.
Money may not buy happiness but it sure can make the unhappiness more bearable.