Law Humor

“I think he should choose life.”

By Pseudoanonymous

It’s distressing when a right-wing figure is involved in a sexual pecadillo, just as it was with Mark Sanford.

First come the left-wing homophobes, explaining that he’s obviously a closeted gay. Next the gloating over hypocrisy, which (unlike the gay-baiting) has an ethical leg to stand on, until the glee begins to wear on me. Finally, the crowing over the usual resignation, or the indignation over staying in office, whatever, is okay when you’re making a moral stand on someone else’s failings:

Talking tough is easy when it’s other people’s evil
and you’re judging what they do or don’t believe

This morning, I stumbled onto someone who found the empathy for Mark Sanford I’ve been looking for:

He begins to feel that his life has no integrity, no meaning.  Everything seems flat and tasteless.  He endures this condition for months, then years.  He thinks he will never be vital and alive again, as he once was. There was a time when he had dreams, when life seemed full of possibility, but now he plods ahead, one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, day after day.

Then Mark Sanford meets Chapur.  They have a few drinks.  She smiles.  She listens.  She touches his hand.  Both his body and his emotions respond, and he is swept into a new world, a world where the flesh is tied to spirit, and he feels regenerated.  The life force that he thought was gone forever has returned, in spades.  He knows only that he has to be with Chapur.  Nothing else matters.

Not that it keeps him from ruin, but perhaps ruin is what he needs. Everyone suffers:

I had a dream; aw shucks, oh well
And its all fucked up, its shot to hell
yea-eah, my shit’s fucked up
It has to happen to the best of us
The rich folk suffer like the rest of us
It’ll happen to you.

And so what should Mark Sanford do?

I think he should choose life.  I’m not sure if Chapur is that new life, or just represents it, but he has been dead, and he has a taste of what it means to be alive, and he should follow that leading…

Right now Sanford is torn and confused.  He has to choose.  He may think that his choice is between two women, but this is not the case.  His choice is life, or not-life…

It’s a well-said piece, kind to Sanford but not uncaring about his family. Read the whole thing.

Full post as published by Arkansawyer on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).