Our family is currently enjoying the Showtime version of Henry VIII's life in The Tudors. The costumes, the intrigue (even when you know who loses their head), and the sex. Amazing amounts of sex really. We are only on season one and only Buckingham has lost his head, literally.
But back to the sex. It seems like the King and every man and woman around him (except his poor wife) is having sex. Every kind of sex actually... none of that prim Victorian sex that we promoted here in the Americas. The women and the men seem to actually be enjoying themselves.
What does this have to do with John Edwards and his affair? Well, perhaps our Victorian ways have clouded our vision. Perhaps we aren't meant to be pious and pure in the bed. Maybe we are sexual beings with large appetites for new and naughty. Men of power seem to get in trouble time and time again for getting in the bed of ladies who are not theirs and it seems to me that there is a pattern of infidelity dating back much further then Clinton, Kennedy and American politicians.
We have appetites for sex and we are currently favored by the public for denying them. Why? What happened that we decided our bodies were meant for one person to devour rather then enjoy the delicacies of what is offered.
I understand that there could/are abuses of power, that women deserve a man to be faithful, that marriage is a covenant between two people. I just think that we have developed a very narrow view of the human experience and we worry about chastising men and women for what could be a natural act.
Is John Edwards not a good man now? Is his sexuality overshadowing his leadership and vision? I don't think so. I admire him and could really care less who he gets into bed with.
As a nation we are crippling ourselves by our pious attitudes and good men and women are crushed in our fervor. I am not saying I want a King who flits from bed to bed, but I do want a leader who has visions of greatness and leadership in our nation... which last time I looked was much larger then his bed.
