My Thoughts On The Lance Armstrong Situation

Well, here’s the next big trial in the Court Of Public Opinion:  Lance Armstrong.

My thoughts?

I’m not going to attempt to judge the man. I’m not going to attempt to speculate on what he was thinking, or what he meant. I’ll point this out in a few places as I go along. But this is a complicated story. It seems to me that in the Court of Public Opinion, too many times, we try to summarize our opinions, judgments, and feelings about the topic at hand as a singular statement. I think the reality of most of these situations is that if I attempt to come up with a single thought, I have to disproportionately weigh an aspect, and I think that starts to distort the situation. So, I usually choose to keep distinctly-different aspects of a situation separate, and not fall into the trap of trying to make my opinion fit some kind of acceptable mold or length.

Also, just as a quick note, I’m writing this before the airing of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, and I am not at all interested in watching the interview. I am also not interested in hearing all of the opinions and analysis that is going to come after the interview. In my opinion, in the course of these public “come clean” interviews, the focus turns into judging what was said, what wasn’t said, how it was said, etc., and as I said above, I am not interested in judging. I’m not interested in the person, I’m interested in the impact.

So, with that said:

His cheating in the sport of cycling:  Of course cheating is wrong, and yet it happens all over the place, and not just in sports.  If I wanted to paint a black/white definition of cheating, then I am sure somewhere along the way, we all have cheated in some respect. The sport of cycling in that time frame was full of cheaters. Supposedly, when Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles this week, a few of the titles couldn’t be given to the second, third, or fourth place winners because they are ALL guilty of cheating. I don’t think it takes a bad man to cheat when the majority of people around him are doing the same thing and getting away with it. It takes a good man to not cheat while being surrounded by cheaters. If there is a lesson here, it is the importance (and the seemingly increasing rarity) of maintaining your integrity in the face of opposition. Which is better:  achieving a major high, only to have it crashing down, leaving you lower than you were before you started, or maybe sacrificing that high but preserving yourself from the crash later?

And I’m going to tip my hand here:  as I said, this isn’t really going to be a discussion on how I feel about Lance Armstrong, but the situation instead. And in every situation, there are lessons that can be learned…

His vehement denials:  This, I have a hard time looking past.  All week, news and sports outlets have replayed many of the interviews and press conferences where he has vehemently denied these accusations that he is now admitting. I haven’t done any specific reading, but I have seen where several people – accusers, associates, etc. – have had their lives financially and emotionally affected (the word “ruined” has been used) by the way Lance Armstrong covered up his cheating, or maintained his now-false innocence. This to me is the most offensive part of this whole situation, and the hardest to justify or excuse, so I simply won’t.  Period.

His LiveStrong Foundation:  This to me is the toughest part of the conversation.  After thinking about it for a couple of days, I think I’m settling in on this point:  regardless of the face of an organization, or the roots of an organization, if the organization is inherently good, and does good things, I don’t think something like this needs to change the light the organization and it’s good results are viewed under. More simply put:  the inspiration, progress, and lives saved by the LiveStrong foundation should remain untarnished.  If you believed in what the foundation stood for, still believe in it. If you were inspired by the foundation, or even Lance Armstrong and you have done something positive with that inspiration, do not allow yourself to feel differently about that. Deciding to be inspired, or maybe more accurately put – deciding to let inspiration take over to lift you to a higher place, is still a decision.  Decisions should be judged, and only judged, based on the facts and environment as they were understood at that time. It is a mistake, in my opinion, to change a judgment on a decision based on newly-revealed facts that were not available at that time. A good decision, made with what you knew then, is a good decision no matter what you may find out afterwards, and/or, no matter how that decision turns out. If this sounds like a lesson in not living life in the past, it’s because it is.  I am able, and I think it’s important to, in this case, separate the positives that have come out of this Foundation from the tarnished legacy that is Lance Armstrong.

I hope, for the sakes of those inspired, those who have survived cancer directly or indirectly related to LiveStrong, and the research that was made possible by LiveStrong, that Lance Armstrong distances himself from this Foundation as quickly and as quietly as possible.

(By the way, side note:  I have long been a fan of the TV show South Park. Last fall, there was an episode of   True to their fashion, they took this Lance Armstrong/LiveStrong/yellow bracelet issue, took it to a crazy extreme, all to make a handful of points, which I am not going to go into here – except to say that in light of Lance Armstrong’s admission, makes this episode interesting.)

Inspiration is an interesting thing, though. We all look for it, and we all legitimately need it. As a society, we seem to be stuck on getting our inspiration from figures in the public spotlight:  actors, athletes, and entertainers. (I find it also interesting that the lines between actor, athlete, and entertainer are becoming more and more blurred, but that’s another topic for another post.) Inspiration is good, but we are inspired by others, we run the risk of having that inspiration come into question when those “others”, who are human and have flaws, do something that taints that inspirational aspect.  We definitely have that in this situation, and my assertion above is that you have to be confident enough in that inspiration, enough so that inspiration may survive and overcome any outside influence that comes along and attempts to break that down.

Confidence.

We need to be confident in our inspiration – we need to be confident in what we choose to be inspired by. Confidence comes from within. If inspiration is the spark, then confidence is the fire, and we, ourselves are responsible for keeping the fire going. We need to discover what fuels our fires internally, and remain confidently on fire. There are many places and sources of that spark – but if our fire is strong enough, we should be able to survive a shameful case like this, where a seemingly-inspirational person falls from the pedestal they compelled us into putting him on.

LiveConfidently!