Your Attitude

A while back I was talking with my friend’s seven year old. We were strategizing on ways for her to try and talk her dad into getting a puppy. One of the things I taught her was that when Dad was resisting she should put her hands on her hips, look him in the eye and say: “I don’t like your attitude.”

It was fun and of course got me into trouble with her parents, but it’s so true that attitude determines so much about literally everything we do.

If you know me even somewhat well you know that for over six years now I’ve been dealing with Cancer. I’m still here and I’ll be damned if it isn’t because of my attitude.

None of us know how we are going to react when we are told that something is seriously wrong with our health. My Uncle Dick was a Doctor and he always said – you knew right away which of those folk had a shot and which ones wouldn’t last long. You got two choices at that point – give up and die or fight. I’ve never backed down from a fight be it mental, political or physical – and I’m still here six years later and continue to keep as positive an attitude as I can.

As I watch popular culture, news and the dreaded social media it’s pretty clear that the younger generation doesn’t understand this at all.

The attitude is that everything wrong in their lives is a result of someone else’s actions, policies and/or thought processes. It’s the government’s fault. It’s the police’s fault. It’s the white man’s fault. It’s the black man’s fault. It’s my parent’s fault. It’s the college’s fault. It’s the bank’s fault. If you are a Democrat then it is 100% for sure god damn Putin’s fault.

You know, because the bank and the college forced you to take out a mountain of student loan debt. Because every single cop in the entire country is a white bread redneck chicken shit racist who would rather shoot black community members than anything else.

STOP. Just. Fucking. Stop.

In the midst of 24/7 Russia/Ukraine coverage, inflation rising, gas going nuts, celebrities saying they’ll pay ten bucks a gallon for gas (can you say anything more stupid, can you be any more out of touch?) and all the other bullshit being thrown at us I PRAY that you didn’t miss Tiger Woods being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last night. He told a couple of stories that EVERYONE should hear. If everyone, and I do mean everyone, would take these stories to heart, this country would be so strong and frankly we’d all be indomitable.

In his speech Woods didn’t touch on ANY of his 82 victories on the PGA Tour or his 15 majors, or the eight surgeries he endured along the way.

Instead, he spoke of his parents taking out a second mortgage that allowed him to play the junior circuit in California, choking up when he mentioned his late father who told him he would have to earn everything he wanted.

“If you don’t go out there and put in the work, you don’t go out and put in the effort, one, you’re not going to get the results,” Woods said. “But two, and more importantly, you don’t deserve it. You need to earn it. So that defined my upbringing. That defined my career.” You don’t DESERVE it if you don’t EARN it.

So how did that shape his attitude – and this is the most important story he told – is this your attitude when faced with diversity?

Woods, the first player of Black and Asian heritage to win a major at the 1997 Masters when he was 21, also spoke of the discrimination he felt as a youth. He told one story about going to a country club to play a tournament, and he wasn’t allowed in the clubhouse like the other juniors because of the color of his skin.

“So I was denied access into the clubhouses. That’s fine. So I put my shoes on here in the parking lot,” he said. “Then I asked two questions of them and that was it. Where was the first tee, and what was the course record? Not complicated.”

No, not complicated at all.