Terrance Watanabe was a one man Las Vegas wrecking crew. The big problem is the only thing he wrecked was his own pocket book. In about a year, he successfully (as it were, for the casinos) went through about $127 million dollars at two of Harrah's casinos. Of that he has paid $112 million and is being taken to court on felony charges over the rest, which he refused to pay. In a civil suit, he claims that Harrah's duped him systematically into his losses, and it wasn't really his fault.
Some sites note that Watanabe is a philanthropist. That's gotta put a big bite on his capacity for philanthropy. Or maybe Harrah's is his charity of choice. If he can claim the losses as a charitable deduction, that should help with the cash flow. The numbers are staggering. He sure could have done a lot of real good with that $127 million. He chose not to, whether he had help or not.
But Eldrick Tont Woods is another story. The man they call Tiger seems to have blown his reputation, and credibility. Terrance Watanabe will be pretty much old news tomorrow. Tiger Woods, not on your nelly.
It appears that Tiger's nickname may have been given him at a young age from a friend of his father's, but it seems to have been earned both on and off the course. This is a terribly sad situation, as he has a wife at home, and two very young children, who need their father to man up, and be the man he was created to be, as hard as it will be for him. It beats the alternative.
Up until this week, many men on hearing of Tiger's alleged sexual exploits would have been cheering him on, or be envious of him. Those guys have probably left the building with this week's fallout.
But his family are in the building and the building is in flames. I urge you all to pray for him and for his family, not because he is any more worthy of your prayers and supplications than any other of us. He is not, but he needs them mightily now. God can turn this all to good through the power of prayer.
Power corrupts, and the money and power that Tiger Woods has gotten over the years may have undone him. But God has power beyond any that Mr. Woods relied on over these last years, and loves him and accepts him, and wants to heal him in this situation, to the Glory of God, not the glory of Tiger Woods.
Mr. Woods claims to be a Buddhist, but may have away the day they taught the class on the Four Noble Truths. Here they are as included in an article on Buddhism over at Wikipedia:
- Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering/uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another.
- Suffering is caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.
- Suffering ends when craving ends, when one is freed from desire. This is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);
- Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.
Christian believers know the power of words, from the Word Incarnate, Jesus to the words that come out of our mouths and of the abundance of our hearts. We want to judge a fallen hero harshly, because he let us all down, because we invested in him with our hero worship. It is wrong to gossip about him, and also to judge him. It was also wrong to build him up as a hero. He is just a man.
In his shoes would you have been totally without sin? Didn't think so. Me either. His cross is too big for me to carry, but it could fit him well, if he trusts in God to help him with the load. So, spread prayer for him, not words of gossip.
Only Redemption will save Mr. Woods now from a fate he seems to deserve. And there is only one Redeemer. Pray that Mr. Woods finds Him.
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