"Presto! She just appeared outta nowhere!"

It seems that the Associated Press may have missed the sports story—or even the story—of the year:

At only 31, Tiger Woods is uncovering personal dimensions that have little to do with his championship golf game.

The latest came earlier this week when Woods said he would design a course in the North Carolina mountains -- his company's first U.S. project.

"The reason I waited so late is I wanted to make sure the timing is right," Woods said Tuesday when the announcement was made about the new course. "And the timing is right. There's a wonderful balance in my life."

A big reason is 2-month-old Sam Alexis, the first child for Woods and wife Elin.

"It's hard to believe," said Woods, his eyes lighting up when discussing his daughter. "When we first had her that night, Elin and I just looked at each other and said, 'How do you love something so much that didn't exist an hour ago?"' [emphasis added]

That's a good question, but I can think of another one that is equally important: If the baby didn't exist until she was born, what exactly was in Elin Wood's womb the last nine months? 

Comments

[Rick]

Tiger must have been following the logic of Barbara Boxer when she was debating the issue with Rick Santorum on the Senate floor. "The baby is born when the baby is born," she replied the first time around. Followed by, "You give birth to a baby. The baby is there," and "to me it is obvious when a baby is born."

Tiger and Boxer must have read Bill Clinton's relativist manifesto on logic entitled If There "Is" An "Is", Then It Does Depend on the What the Meaning of the Word "Is" Is!

[joanne]

What is truth? What is reality? (Ugh)
Once upon a time, persons declaring that the world had gone mad were themselves insane. It would be difficult to prove that the reverse is not today's reality.

[Teófilo]

That's a good question, but I can think of another one that is equally important: If the baby didn't exist until she was born, what exactly was in Elin Wood's womb the last nine months?

Answer: a golf ball.

[Ed Schwellenbach]

Come on, guys! I don't believe that Tiger was attempting to make a theological statement, or a physiological one, or an anti-religious one. He was simply trying to describe the exhilarating increase of joy that most parents experience upon seeing for the first time that perfect little human that they helped to create nine months ago.

Your comments are just another example of politically-correct silliness. It must be a slow news day.

[Carl Olson]

I don't believe that Tiger was attempting to make a theological statement, or a physiological one, or an anti-religious one.

Neither do I. Nor do I think he should be raked over the coals for putting it in such a way. But I think it's reasonable to think that his manner of expressing it is related to how modern culture thinks about procreation, birth, and babies.

It must be a slow news day.

It could be. Fortunately, this isn't a news blog, at least not in any strict sense of the term.

[Jackson]

"If the baby didn't exist until she was born, what exactly was in Elin Wood's womb the last nine months?"

How dare you ask such a sound question? What gives you the right to think you can impose your belief system on Tiger and everyone else? You're such a fascist.

By the way, did you know that the former Religion section of the L.A. Times is now called the Beliefs section? I'm glad they relativized it, because the paper's attempt to impose any idea of absolute truth on me was becoming too hard to bear. Progress must progress!

[Ed Peters]

Ed S's question, and Carl's response, are both on point. Personally, I take celebrity quotes with more than a grain of salt. It hit me today, during the Creed, how some lines can be taken in quite the wrong way: a la, "...he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man."

No one really thinks that Jesus..., well, you see the point.

[Ed Peters]

Oh, another point, pregnancies are 100x more real to moms than to dads. This is 6 births talking here. A woman in labor will say something like "We love you baby!" and the dad will say Huh? What? But I understand Tiger's point: I can never imagine what another child could possibly be like, and then I can't imagine our family without him or her upon arrival.

Weird.

[joanne]

Maybe he did only mean it in the way we are surprised in the garden, where, even though we ourselves planted the tomatoes and expected them to grow, the visible reality awes us.