"Are you going to keep wearing that?", I asked my husband. I wasn't referring to some long-beloved but ratty t-shirt, but that familiar yellow "Livestrong" rubber bracelet he's been sporting for what seems like an eternity. Now that Lance Armstrong has been revealed - by his teammates - as the doping fraud, I wonder whether his many fans will be throwing away those once-inspiring mementos of the vast Armstrong-Nike merchandising empire.
I'm not surprised, but I'm sad. Not for Lance and his teammates and his commercial entourage. They made their choice to ride along with him, and to believe in him against all logic. I'm sad for regular people who looked to Lance as a role model for beating cancer and for raising not only money and awareness, but a powerful sense of hope.
That hope has been diminished. Not the long-term hope for a cure, mind you, but the personal hope that, if you would just tough it out and adopt Lance's "just do it" approach to life's adversities, you could be your own cure.
Yeah, right.
Count me among the long-time cynics who find the news of Lance's fall from sporting grace as inevitable. I'm not shocked. I'm not outraged. I could give a rat's ass about Lance's personal and professional successes. But I am sad. Sad for the many folks, young and old, who pushed themselves through their pain and exhaustion, thinking, "If Lance can do it, maybe I can do it too!"
Like the teenaged girl resorting to bulimia to look like those ultra-thin supermodels, only to find out that fashion magazines have been airbrushed to create their flawless complexions and photoshopped to alter their propostions for that unbelievably thin look, many people find themselves on a treadmill of self-loathing because they can't live up to their idol.
When the amazing and inspiring role model is found to be just one more elaborate fraud, will these folks get of that emotional treadmill and cut themselves some slack? I sure hope so. That's not to suggest that anyone should throw their bike onto a scrap heap or eat a half-gallon of ice cream when they get the news. Just that they should realize that we should all be striving to be the best person we can be, including a person that can love and forgive themselves for not achieving the impossible.