Icons with Feet of Clay

The virtue I put the highest value on, I think, is fidelity.  If a person cannot trust their partner to be faithful to them their life must be bleak indeed.  How hard can it be to stay true to one’s vows?  For many apparently it it “too hard”.  Can’t a person simply say “I’m unhappy, I want out” and then leave the marriage before becoming unfaithful?  Isn’t that at least honest?  Anything less is cowardly.

            From Hollywood types we don’t expect ethics, morals or the like.  It’s never a real surprise when someone from that crowd is caught in hanky panky.  From politicians, qu’elle surprise?  I think not.  Royalty, please.  Athletes, well of course they have “sex addictions”!  But when heroes from other walks of life, life coaches or people who have emulated family life turn out to have feet of clay I think we are pretty disappointed.  Case in point, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  I’ve read all Anne’s published diaries and read several biographies of Charles and not a word about adultery.  Along comes the internet and wham! allegations of adultery surface.  Did this have to be made public?     

            Do we need to know when our icons falter like this?  If your president or prime minister is an unfaithful bastard does it affect his ability to govern?  Are we naive enough to believe that our politicians are squeaky clean?  Now knowing how I feel about adultery when I say, I really don’t care if the candidate has a mistress, may seem surprising.  Yes, I think he is scum of the earth.  Would I vote for him?  If he was from my party, yes.  Why?  Because I don’t vote for the person, I vote for the party platform that is looking out for me.  My philosophy in this instance is that the party as a whole should be looking out for the people, not one individual. That’s what works in Canadian politics. 

            One of the most shocking divorces for me was when Ann Landers announced hers back in the ‘70s.  I still remember how she wrote the announcement in her column and then asked her newspapers to please leave the rest of the column blank in remembrance.  And they did.  I had long been a faithful reader (since the age of 14) and really respected her forthright advice.  It was probably the most shocking public divorce for me. 

When icons falter, it is really sad.