Just Do It - Do You

I write now in the midst of an attempt to deal with an addiction. Perhaps, you might suggest, a twelve-step program may be of benefit, but I would then have to share that I embrace my addiction, and really don't want to have to give it up.

My son is now 17 - beyond the age of eligibility for the local recreation league - and as a result, for the first time since 1998, I am not coaching a youth baseball team...and I miss it. I would almost say that I don't know what to do with that portion of my time that would be spent on the field, but I'm afraid that my wife would then suggest various things I want no parts of, so I'll refrain from that.

Someone else might then suggest that perhaps I could find a tennis or golf or roller hockey team to help out with - and to that I would say no, the enjoyment was associated with coaching baseball in the spring and summer, basketball in the winter. Coaching those other sports...right now, that's not me, and so while I feel somewhat like a fish out of water, I just want to do me.

In general, I think that's a good way to go...which leads me to think about someone who also may have been feeling a little out of sorts of late, Tiger Woods. Now before you go on and reach out to my wife, let me emphasize that we haven't shared the same experiences of late...except for the fact that Tiger has also not been doing what he's used to doing. We have now learned that he is going to return at the Masters, and to that I say it's about time.

My personal life is not Tiger's business, and his personal life is not mine - and so I don't feel that he owes me any apologies for what goes or went on in and around his household. As long as he is in the apology/explanation/evasive modes, his name will always share sentences with words and phrases like "embattled golfer," "troubled golfer," "philanderer," etc. As long as he is in the aforementioned modes, he is away from doing what he does - which is play golf better than anyone on this planet. When he returns to the course, the way the media speaks of him will be forced to return from analysis of his personal situation to a description of the way he won the latest tournament, how many majors he has won, how many major-tournament wins behind the career record of Jack Nicklaus he currently is, and so on.

So Tiger - just do you. And then, when you have come to that conclusion, can you give a call to the President - I'd text him but I don't have his Blackberry number - and give him the same advice? Actually, I'm hoping he has already come to that conclusion, as evidenced by his recess appointments to fill positions being held up by Senate Republicans, as well as the recent passage of the health care legislation.

Mr. Obama is one who enjoys honest debate and seeks consensus, but we all now know that the agenda of the Republicans in Congress is not to engage in debate or find consensus; it is to attempte to derail anything Obama wants to get accomplished, even if these things include their ideas. There's no need to waste any more time with them until they come back with a new attitude. Take your majorities in the houses of Congress, ram through everything you can in any which way you must, and let the chips fall where they may.

Just do you.