Off the hook all right

Last night, I watched Oprah's interview with John Edwards' "baby mama" Rielle Hunter. Someone called her a "New Age Airhead".

My reaction: Wow. She really is scum.

Not only because she slept with a married man. It was her sense of entitlement that bothered me. She claims to be a person who "lives by truth." With the affair now exposed, "Johnny" is now forced to "live a more authentic life" instead of the "lie" of a solid marriage to scary, emasculating Elizabeth Edwards.

In everything concerning the affair, Rielle Hunter felt perfectly justified. She (Rielle) was only following her heart. It's obvious she believes following her heart is always right. No matter who gets hurt. No matter that a dying woman's husband wants to screw you. Rielle didn't take vows to honor Elizabeth Edwards. Therefore, Rielle is off the hook. She's off the hook all right...

What's troubling is she truly believes she is on a superior spiritual path. She doesn't even recognize the acid trip her ego is on. The ego deceives (in church they call it "the flesh"; Freud calls it "the id"). It sees, it wants, it covets, it takes. Damn the consequences.

She's been fooled into believing her hormones & her heart are one & the same. She has concocted an elaborate "belief system" that justifies everything she does & exonerates her married boyfriend Johnny from any wrongdoing.

It must be nice inside that head of hers. Because everything is someone else's fault (e.g., the affair: Elizabeth's). People's opinions have nothing to do with her (the reason: you don't know me). You can't wreck a home where the marriage is strong (because: in her experience, 3rd parties can't wreck strong marriages).

For all her well-thought out justifications, Rielle fails to consider the simplest question of all and fails the simplest measure of human decency: how would you like it if someone did that to you?