Those Januaray Doldrums

My, what a busy few weeks it has been!

I apologize to my loyal reader, Joe, who has been hounding me about my lack of posts. Had I known I had a loyal reader, I assure you I would have continued to spew out content, no matter how trivial, to give you a better start to long days in the Kroger tower.

My lame excuse for not writing is that I've been a single parent; my husband has been in Raleigh (courtesy title for the sprawling metropolis of Smithfield, NC) during the week for the past 2 weeks. And that I've been extraordinarily busy at work (does this mean the recession is ending?) And that American Idol is on. (OK, I'm kidding about that one; I still haven't been able to get into a show that crams 6 minutes of content into 2 hours.)

But there's too much going on in the world right now to avoid cramming my opinions down other people's throats much longer.

For starters, I was correct, as was the National Enquirer! John Edwards did Father Rielle Hunter's child. I feel particularly validated in this, because, shortly after meeting him at a Bond Hill rally 2004, I told my cousin Kelsey, then an avid John Edwards fan, "that [insert unsavory term that ends in "bag" here] is definitely cheating on his wife." She assured me that no, he wasn't like that, and I maintained that he oozed that vibe, and we never spoke of it again until the news broke that he HAD cheated on her. I took Kelsey's Father's wedding to be a great venue to gleefully proclaim to her "I was right!" And now, he exclusively tells the today show that he's the father of Frances Quinn, not because it was eating away at him, but so he can break the story first.

2009 was quite the year for powerful men to cheat on their wives. Why do they do it? I've never been one to overanalyze the Male psyche. I tend to be the gal rolling her eyes as young women proclaim "well, he was just so overwhelmed by his feelings for me and got scared and ran away." Let's not go making Men any more complicated than Women. We're all less complex creatures than we'd like to believe.

Here's my condensed list of reasons why they do it:
1. Because lots of women out there want to have sex with them
2. Because some of these women are hot, and even though some are not, they seem to be very kinky and experienced with sex, probably more so than the sane, demure wives running their households and taking care of their children
3. Because it's fun to do what we're not supposed to do. Do powerful Men get the same rush from illicit sex that I get from jaywalking in front of the policemen on horses downtown? Possibly an even bigger rush? Wow! It's the same reason that this pilot says he doesn't get a lot of people using their real names on the certificate he issues those he helps to join the mile-high club and that a swingers club can thrive in traditionally conservative places, like suburban Cincinnati: the excitement one gets from breaking the rules is directly proportional to how firmly the rules are established. The more counter-cultural an activity is, the more fun.

I, for one, am going to spend some time being thankful that we live in a place where we can't be stoned or caned or violently beaten and thrown in jail for breaking most tenants of our moral code, assuming they don't directly harm others. But the problem is that they DO harm others. There are, of course, wives and children at stake. So while I can be glad that we aren't so barbaric that we stone men like Tiger and John Edwards for their transgressions, I am also glad that I have the free speech to publicly declare that what they do isn't acceptable, and that, at least in Tiger's case, I hope the wives take them for all they're worth.

And because we're so fortunate, and are constantly reminded of that, I want to put out my own plug to my local reader: if you haven't already done your part to help those who aren't so fortunate, and are looking for a non-scammy charity that will help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, here's one:

Catholic Relief Services

Happy January, everyone. I promise to write you all again before Feb.