Messed Up

Michael Phelps messed up.  I am sorry for his mother.  According to what I heard and read, she spent her life helping him prepare for and participate in a lifetime of sporting events that led to the Olympics.  How dare he embarrass her?  How dare he act in such a way as to lose the respect of adults who want their kids to try hard like Michael Phelps; go to practice if they want to excel like Michael Phelps.  I don't want to hear this nonsense that he is human.  That he is young.  That everyone makes mistakes.  Bull.  At his age, he is a man.

When you work hard for something and throw it away for a puff of pot, you are inconsiderate of those who have invested in you and disrespectful to those who have bought your name and most of all, you have disgraceful yourself.  A puff of pot is more than pot; it is a symbol of one's lack of maturity in the face of consequences.  Geraldo claims everyone he knows has smoked pot except Bill O'Reilly.  Well, so what.  Everyone I know, with the exception of perhaps a few, have NOT smoked pot.  

I always feared consequences of doing anything that might embarrass or disgrace my family.  Was he thinking about his mother?  Not one bit.  Someday he will look back at what could have been and how he blew it (or smoked it).  I hope it was worth it.  I don't blame his sponsors for dropping him.  Everyone makes mistakes but that also means we pay for them.  Whether or not he smoked pot doesn't bother me; the fact he disgraced and hurt his mother does.  She deserved better.