Fernando Alonso won the Grand Prix of Italy in a Ferrari last weekend and I am – sort of – happy about it. A couple of years ago, when he was driving for Renault, was the underdog, and was young and innocent; I would have been much happier. But Fernando has been caught cheating several times and he now seems to have feet of clay.

Yea, he is a superb driver, but as a human being…meh. And – maybe – that is what makes him such a successful driver. Certainly other athletes fall into the category, Berry Bonds come to mind.

I have always had heroes. People who I have admired for what they have done and – then – that admiration got carried over to who they were. When I was a teenager, I had a picture of Sterling Moss on my wall. My mother was afraid I was gay but it still makes sense to me.

But it does make me wonder about hero worship and role models and how much we are willing to forgive and overlook in those distant demigods. It seems to me that, once our admiration of their talents crosses over to devotion, we are willing to overlook alot. Right now, I have a commemorative medal of Ulysses Simpson Grant  1832-1885 on my desk – his real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, by the way.

Grant is a man I greatly admire and he did some very stupid and mean spirited things I am willing to overlook. I have friends who hate Sarah Palin and justify that hate with the fact that she is a lier but are perfectly willing to overlook lying in Bill Clinton. 

I have no point to make here except that we hold on to our believes fiercely. We think those beliefs are products of our logic and reason but they aren't, they come from some deep and hidden recesses of our being.