The John Edwards Thing

Many people are shocked by the knowledge that John Edwards had an affair with a videographer while campaigning for President.

My wife isn't. She knows that if SHE were running for President it would be near impossible for her to resist the advances of THIS videographer.

But that's not the point of this post. My point is to talk about the shock I experienced when I heard the news. Shock, that is, that Edwards campaign was paying $100K for 4 YouTube videos!



I'm obviously in the wrong genre of filmmaking OR I am a pretty terrible salesperson. I'm delighted when I sell a $2,500 video to a nonprofit. When they want to do a larger project that costs $5,000, I'm so excited I could jump over cars while they are moving, like that guy from That's Incredible. (I'm even more excited when they raise $25K or more with one of those videos - it happens!)

I suppose it's possible that, when she was hired, the candidate figured he'd be getting a little EXTRA for his investment. That's hard to say.

In any case, the videos didn't work. And the affair didn't help either. If she were really hot, like Marilyn Monroe, folks might still be comparing him to John F. Kennedy. But, alas, she is just a party girl who had about 10,000 too many cocktails. And one too many presidential candidates.

Can I digress just a little bit here? I haven't read a great many presidential biographies, but the the sense I get is that the job is incredibly stressful AND frustrating. If that much power still results in frustration that you can't control outcomes, then what hope is there for me? And why would there be those who pursue it? The American Presidency to me is a fine example of how the world is truly a chaotic system, and doing something on the macro level may have the OPPOSITE effect that you expect.

So, the only way to lead a Good Life (with mostly good outcomes) is truly to act locally, specifically, and carefully. You can start by being true to your spouse. I want to be able to say to Marian decades from now that I loved no other, and let our children see that faithfulness is one of the few ways to grab a piece of eternity in THIS life.

"But where's my YouTube videos?!" Marian might ask. I'm working on those!