Andre Agassi is creating quite the stir on the media tour to promote his new book, Open. Actually, it’s the admissions and the reactions to them, the stone throwing, that are creating the stir. Nothing better than a little dirt is there?
Lost in all of that though is his story, his narrative. It would be nice if, once the hoopla over his hair weave and his use of crystal meth died down, that his narrative and story would generate as much interest. He was on NBC’s Today Show this morning talking with Meredith Viera. (I still think she looks like Lindsay Wagoner.) You might also have seen him on 60 Minutes Sunday night with Katie Couric. That was a terrific interview and during that he touched a little bit on the concept of story. I don’t recall his saying anything about narrative though. Something changed between then and this morning’s interview. I don’t know if the publisher’s PR folks coached him or if he worked this out for himself. I’m not sure that it matters.
He said Sunday night that he hoped his story might inspire some others but he really never got into that. I wonder if the way Couric presented the Navratilova attack didn’t take him aback for the rest of the interview. I got the feeling that he was very uncomfortable. He sort of had that deer in headlights look about him. Which seems strange when you consider that this is a guy who is used to performing on one of the biggest of sporting stages, in front of millions of people, half naked to boot. That look hadn’t disappeared in this morning’s interview either. He looked sort of vulnerable and untrusting, as if he’s waiting for one more kick to the crotch. The media can do that to you I suppose, but I wonder if it’s not the petard he’s been hoisted on by some of those in the tennis world that makes him appear so gun shy.
And that is such a shame because his is a great story. He has discovered the narrative that gives meaning to and informs his life and he has decided to share it in the hopes of inspiring others who might be dealing with things similar to what he was. One of my favorite college professors, Dr. Edward St. Clair, introduced me to story and narrative, through the work of Stephen Crites, in the late 60s. Crites’s “The Narrative Quality of Experience” explained that we should think of experience as patterned in and through time. What that means is that “experience itself is an incipient story”. Agassi has clearly come to understand how his experiences, expressed through narrative and story, can be used to influence people. Here’s what he said this morning.
“I wouldn’t do a book halfway, it would be something that I feel somebody can learn from or get inspired by as it relates to my story I found myself at a time in my life where I wanted to take my story, find the story, the narrative in my life and offer that to people to help them. I think there’s millions of people out there that wake up in a life that they didn’t choose for themselves and that’s what I found in my life…I think this can have some real power.”
I’ll say. Before we heard about this, how many of us would have loved to be living his life? Gazillionaire, studly tennis pro, married to drop dead gorgeous Brooke Shields, living the good life, right? Whoops. Not so fast there. He hated tennis, hated his life. Got forced into it by a domineering father. Hear that, all you dads looking to live your life, tell your stories, through your kids’ athletic endeavors? The amazing thing to me about that part of his narrative? He doesn’t hate his father for pushing him down that path. He’s come to an understanding and acceptance. Likely as a result of telling his story and finding those narrative threads, weaving those now instead of his hair, an act that cost him a grand slam title at the French Open.
I was never one of his biggest fans. After watching those two interviews, and hearing him relate parts of his story, I am rapidly becoming one. I’m looking forward to reading the book so that I can enjoy the full story. I hope that he can put the distractions his narrative has caused aside and continue to tell that story and inspire those people who might see some of their story in his.
