A few years ago, Jesse Ryder, a member of the Black Caps cricket team – a very good player when he was in form – got into trouble with the team management because of ongoing issues with alcohol.
He was dropped from a test match and told he was in last chance territory.
Someone posted on Facebook:
“Happy to hear that drunkard Jesse Ryder has been dropped from the Black Caps for the next test. He’s had enough chances. His time is up. Bye bye Jesse, and good riddance, I say!”
I felt I had to comment: I said “I hope when they are summing up my life, the dumb things I did are not all displayed in high def video on a screen at the funeral.”
Booze can be a fearsome thing and those who abuse it have almost become the new lepers of our society. We elevate our sportsmen and women to places and expectations that test some mere mortals sorely. I for one feel desperately sorry for him. Aroha Mai Jesse.”
My Friend came back:
“He has had enough chances, and we need to stop the Jesse circus being the centre of the NZ cricketing world.
“Is Jesse’s problem that he refuses to grow up, Is he a narcissist, exhibitionist, or possibly an egotist?”
I replied: “I wonder what my ‘label’ is? I suspect there’s probably an ‘ist’ on the end of it. We are all such a complex mixture. Winston Churchill’s wartime antics – expensive champagne and scotch every night, Franklin Roosevelt’s deception over his polio, Martin Luther King’s nighttime dalliances – none of these ‘flaws’ and risky behaviours would have survived modern media scrutiny.”
In an age of CCTV everywhere, cellphone hacking, and a celebrity-obsessed culture, I would agree with the great American social commentator who observed – “May you never be cursed with fame.”