Elizabeth Edwards

I have a lot of faults, I know that. I have a potty mouth (my favorite word begins with f and ends with k, and I ain't talking about a firetruck), I suck with money management and I'm an inconsistent friend, sister, daughter, etc.

One of the things I pray for each night is to be less judgmental. Amongst all of my flaws, I struggle the most with this. I try to give freely of my time and resources, and when I see that those organizations or people aren’t acting in a way I understand, I get bit hostile. I know, it makes me an asshole, but at least I know it, and I’m trying to work on it.

I’m the first to admit that relationships aren’t my forte. I’ve always perceived myself as a bit of a black sheep, and I know that I project that, so the number of serious relationships I have been in is fairly pathetic.

However, I’m at a loss to understand Elizabeth Edwards. She and her husband have admitted that he had an affair with someone he had hired to work as a documentarian on his campaign, and he may or may not have fathered a child with her. In the midst of this, Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has said that she and her husband are working on their marriage, and citing her illness she did not want to spend what time she has left fighting.

Me? I’d rather be alone than wonder if my husband was telling me the truth this time.

I wonder just how far we have come as a gender that in 2009. Mrs. Edwards is placing a great deal of the blame for this relationship on the other woman. Wasn’t her husband the one who was married? Yes, he was and still is a public figure, so one would imagine that the other party would have known that he wasn’t “on the market’ so to speak, but who knows what he was telling her.

When asked about the paternity of the child Mr. Edward’s mistress gave birth to, Mrs. Edwards, naively in my opinion, stated that it wasn’t a part of her life. Fair enough, but wouldn’t this child be the half-sister of her children? Doesn’t that make it a part of her life?

At the end of the day, this truly isn’t my problem. I’ve never been involved with a married man, at least not to my knowledge (let’s just say my last significant relationship occurred when the phrase “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky” was in the national vernacular).

I am sad that woman with Mrs. Edwards experience and education wouldn’t walk away from a man who would not only cheat on her, but lie to her about it. I hope I’m never in her situation. There is part of me that wants to get on the phone and tell her to come to my house and move in with my parents and crazy dogs. Better to be “alone” than to be with a liar, but then again, who am I to judge?

Sigh. I guess I still have a lot to work on.