Monday, June 8, 2009

Of infidelity and dirty linens

From thoughts about faith, now my mind is preoccupied with thoughts about faithfulness or the lack of it. Especially in the context of marriage.

Of course, I'm not toying about the idea of being infidel to my husband. That's farthest from my mind. I have no reason to be unfaithful to him in the first place. I am blessed to have him as my lifetime partner. And assuming that I do have reasons, it is against my character and values to be so. And by this, I'm not trying to cast aspersion on those who at one point in their marriage, have been unfaithful to their partners. I am not in a position to judge anybody. Only God is.

And I know my husband is not going to cheat on me either (some ladies out there will say "i don't hold his mind so how can i be sure?). We have been together for the last 16 years and I know and I know and I know in my heart that he will not do it, period. After all, he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, except a misdefined machismo taken to a new level. He knows that if cheats on me, I would not be mad. I would not get even but I would be hurt so badly.

I've been worried not about our marriage but about news of a broken marriage due to unfaithfulness. I have only been affected a bit when Mel Gibson recently divorced his wife of 28 years, Robyn due to a third party. Who's next - Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie? Your guess is as good as mine. The point is that this thing about separation and divorce seems so ordinary and frequent to showbiz couples as changing their underwears so when news hit the papers, it didn't come as a surprise to me anymore.

But it was a different feeling when I heard that Jon and Kate Gosselin who both star in Jon & Kate Plus 8, a reality tv show about family, are in the verge of separation due to infidelity. And to think that they are such a sweet and ideal couple! Jon was seen out on the towm with a woman not Kate, and Kate and her bodyguard are rumoured to have more than just employee-employer relationship.

Man, how I felt so betrayed! And to think that I don't even know them personally. Perhaps because they represented hope in a world rocked by separation and divorce and marital infidelity every now and then. I thought the couple was different, after all they embodied the ideal marriage both in and out of television set.

The tragedy is that they are now washing their dirty linens in public and their eight children are now being dragged into the endless swirl of accusations and counter accusations and competing headlines.
Their marriage is disintegrating and they are further adding up to the indignity of it all by the way they behave (or misbehave) towards each other in public.

I wished I hadn't come to love their show. But it's too late to undo that now.