Lessons from John Terry

Hopefully, you're all aware of the media scandal that's unfurled around John Terry, England and Chelsea football captain, in the last few days. He cheated on his wife with team mate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend and has allegedly got her pregnant. However, it didn't immediately hit the headllines as the High Court imposed a super-injunction on the media a few weeks ago, saying that they couldn't report on the affair. However, at the end of last week, that injunction was lifted and everything hit the fan for JT.

This story saddens me for lots of reasons. There are three big ones; and I think that they can teach us three lessons. I hop they'll give us room to reflect on ourselves as a society and as individuals. Really.

1. We Can't Get No Satisfaction
John Terry is (at the moment) Captain of one of the biggest club football teams in the world. He is Captain of the English football team. He is the father of twins. He is married to a beautiful woman. He was a highly respected sportsman. He is earning MILLIONS of pounds every year. He's nationally and internationally famous.

And still he wasn't satisfied.

Fame. Money. Family. Respect. Ultimately, they couldn't satisfy John Terry. He wanted more. Think about what you pursue in life. What you think think will "make you". When you think you'll have "made it". Reckon you'll be satisfied? John Terry wasn't. And if it's something on this earth, in this life that you're ultimately aspiring to, that you think will secure everything for you and leave you content until you die, you're wrong.

2. Our Media Should Shame Us
The British media fought for the right to report on Terry's affair. This just makes me angry. It's pathetic. It's a serious and brutal revelation about what our society and the media have sunk to. Our society has gotten to a stage where it is so obsessed with celebrity, so invasive, so devoid of reality, so superficial, so inconsiderate, so desperate for a scoop, that newspapers launch a LEGAL BATTLE to report on a person's social life. That's just wrong! Why is it like that? And why do we condone that media?!

3. Lust Will Screw A Man Over
Boys, let's be honest. Lust is never far our minds. None of us go a day, even an hour or two, without lusting after someone. For blokes, it's the big thing. The thing that will never leave us alone. Especially nowadays in this oversexualised society. But it's been the same throughout history. Lust has been the downfall of men the world over, from great leaders like King David or Bill Clinton, to sportsmen like Terry and Tiger Woods, to us everymen. The whole scandal and the sudden disintegration of John Terry's personal life in the public eye should remind us how much lust, when unchecked and unresisted, can destroy a man's life. Easily. Quickly. Ruthlessly.

Those are the three big lessons I think we've got to take away from this regrettable affair. Spare a thought for poor Wayne Bridge and Toni Poole Terry in all of this won't you?

Have you got any thoughts about this? And lessons? And constructive criticism? Should he still be Captain? Should we even care?