Friday column: A-Rod to Aquinas to Aristotle

The wicked prowl on every side,/ and that which is worthless is highly prized by everyone. — Psalm 12, verse 8

The wicked get more than enough attention here, so today I want to focus on the second line quoted above. It leapt to mind Tuesday as I looked at the lead photo of The New Mexican, which showed a camera-toting young woman positively ecstatic to be in close proximity — less than a foot! — to Loomis Fall from the movie Jackass.

I don’t mean to be hard on the woman. I was 21 once, and at that age a brush with celebrity of any kind surely would have had me grinning ear to ear, too.

Furthermore, while infatuation with celebrity often decreases with the increase of experience and perspective, some things that are worthless continue to be highly prized by folks of any age.

Which brings me to Alex Rodriguez and, oddly enough, Thomas Aquinas.

In one of his writings, the 13th-century theologian deduced that “man’s ultimate happiness consists in contemplation of the truth.” Along the way, he philosophically discarded certain things that did not bring ultimate happiness; these included wealth, sensual pleasure — and honors.

“Only the good can be worthy of honor,” Aquinas wrote, “and yet it is possible even for the wicked to be honored. Therefore it is better to become worthy of honor, than to be honored.”

If you can believe Selena Roberts, author of A-Rod: The Many Faces of Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman worries about honor — other people’s opinions of him. Actually, you don’t have to believe Roberts; you can believe Joe Torre or any number of former teammates who’ve testified to A-Rod’s overwhelming desire to be liked and respected.

Unfortunately, for A-Rod, it’s the intensity of this very desire that seems to undermine his efforts to be well thought of, that leads to teammates seeing him as superficial and phony.

Torre, in The Yankee Years, wrote that he used to tell Rodriguez, “You do things on the field that draw attention to yourself that are unnecessary, and you want people to know how good you are, how smart a ballplayer you are. And we already know that. Just play. Stop saying, ‘Look at me.’ ”

That, apparently, is one thing he can’t do, either on field or off — witness his very public fling with Madonna.

As I don’t mean to be hard on the woman thrilled to be in the presence of Loomis Fall, so I don’t mean to be too hard on A-Rod. He might crave the high opinion of others more than many, but few — if any — of us are immune to that desire.

So perhaps it’s well to end with a reminder, a restatement of Aquinas’ final point by the man who was his philosopher master.

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors,” Aristotle said, “but in deserving them.”

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com