Second Chances...

Last Sunday on 60 minutes, Andre Agassi spoke about his auto biography - "Open". For starters -  he hated tennis, had a fake hair duo and was into drugs in 1997. On the surface, its easy to dismiss these revelations as an ubiquitous celebrity syndrome but inside the teared up eyes was a man who understood the immense significance of the second chance life offered him. There was point in his life, when he and he alone had to choose one of the two paths life had offered him. He choose the right path but the choice he made came with not publicizing his actions. It was a burden he decided not to carry life long. The critical factor which drove him in the right direction was through self reflection sans any tutelage. That's one splendid story for youngsters to look up to find peace and order when chaos hit their life and deduce self reflection as a sine qua non in life.

I never had sympathy for drug addicts nor I could relate to them since I despise drugs but now I can see my fallacy. Its not fair to stereotype and "one size fits all" is never a valid theory for anything in life. Not everyone is prudent enough and they do make stupid mistakes (yeah, to err is human). When someone shed's the devil inside, they open up a life long struggle not to sway the other side again. It's is not a easy task and his perseverance speaks volumes of his character. He is one lucky man since the second chance bought with it a wonderful mate and family. I bet he relishes every moment of it.

I have tried to look at him eschewing my biases - love of tennis, a fan, active mirror neurons et al., but I don't think I can over look the exposure effect, the nemesis averted by Max.