The Square Peg

This is kind of a piggyback to the character vs talent post.

I've been thinking about celebrities and the expectations we have of them and wonder if it's possible we might be a little off base. Take Michael Phelps, for instance.

A while back I heard a lot of people talking about how disappointed they were to find out he had used drugs. I'm not condoning his drug use; like so many others, I assumed he followed the rules set forth by the Olympic Committee and was drug-free. And I feel badly for the kid; he made a dumb choice, the public found out about it, and he'll probably suffer consequences for his choice for a long time. BUT...

I never heard Michael say he was anything other than a competitive swimmer.

So, now I'm wondering why do we often assign certain morals to a person who has a particular kind of gift or talent? Isn't that presumptuous? I'm not talking about drugs because in the case of sports, it's pretty clear why the standards are set the way they are. I'm talking about other moral issues. Is it fair to expect someone who is clean-cut, a certain age, highly disciplined, or interviews well on TV to have a particular moral code of conduct? I know we hope people have certain standards because many times we long for a hero, and are inspired by people who raise (or set) the bar. But isn't it true that we sometimes put things on people unfairly by expecting them to be at a place they're not?

What if instead of having great expectations of people, we put grace expectations on people. What do you think?