Money Madness - The Politician, Part III

Finished The Politician (today). When I began it a week or so ago, I expected it to be about Senator John Edwards and his recent fall into the abyss of his own making. And, of course, it was. But what I did not anticipate was the huge role that MONEY was going to play in Mr. Young's compelling narrative.

Like a shadowy character in a tragic three act play, money occupies a constant role in this strange, sordid story. It is the ever-present subtext of the events that surround the Senator, his wife, his mistress, Mr. Young, and all the other politicians, donors, helpers, friends, supporters and cronies that populate their weird little world.

The lunacy of these people's relationship to money unfolds in ever-increasing vividness as the tale gets told. These folks live in money, think in money, and turn to money as the solution to every problem and the means to every end. No wonder the government is printing it by the boat load. It makes their world go 'round.

The Bible asserts that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Again and again this timeless truth is played out in the dizzying series of events depicted in The Politician. At the center of the whirlpool are the rich, the super rich and the mega rich like Bunny Mellon. A widow in her 90's who becomes a True Believer in the Edwards myth, Mrs Mellon sends her private plane to fetch the Senator back to her estate for a personal meeting. We are told that the inside of the plane is decorated with paintings from the National Gallery. It seems that Mrs. Mellon is one of the institution's premier patrons.

Right from the top, Mr. Young, makes it clear that money is one of the key reasons he has even written this book at all. "My critics will say I am writing this book for money", Young observes. "They are partly right. The Edwards scandal has left me practically unemployable..." As he goes on to unpack the increasingly bizarre, deceptive and compromising events of the story he is telling, the Young confesses again and again that his participation in the chaos he helped create was fueled, at least in part, by his own appetite for money. It is stunning to see him talk himself, his wife, his family and a number of others into a wild array of lies, escapades and deceptions in the name of job security. After all, the ever-increasing demands of the lifestyle that came with his "success" required a continuous "whatever it takes" attitude.

At least the author is honest enough to admit his own weaknesses and foibles. But no such honesty seems to reside in John Edwards, his former boss and friend. What we see in him is a man who is so woefully vulnerable to his own self-deceptions that he comes across as a "double-minded man, unstable in all he does" (James 1: 8).

When events finally push Young's family and Rielle Hunter, Edward's pregnant mistress into hiding, the money factor goes to a frantic level. One hotel stay adds up to $18,000 in less than a week. There is another temporary hiding place -- a rented home in Santa Barbara -- that goes for a whopping $20,000 per month. Much of this money is supplied by another of Edward's loyal supporters, Fred Baron, who seems to have an endless supply of it ready to be employed for the Senator's ultimate benefit.

While it is easy to shake one's head while reading these dollar-soaked stories, it is good to remember that both Edwards and Young came from more humble roots. We would do well not to be smug as if we would be beyond such shenanigans until, presented with the same attractions, temptations and opportunities as these men and women are, we prove ourselves to be made of other stuff.

I plan to post a little bit more on this rather fascinating book. But I must say that, having now immersed myself somewhat in this alternative universe, I am quite ready to return to my own.

Taller Structure, Bigger Shadow - The Politician, Part II

Now 3/4 finished with "The Politician", I am struck by this reality:

even as John Edwards is closing in on a bid for the presidency, even as he is expanding maximum effort to achieve this incredible goal, he is vigorously feeding the beast that will devour him. Why?

Why did John Edwards work so hard on destroying his own hopes at the same time he was doing all he could to realize them? Why do so many of us do the same?

One of the reasons, I am thinking, can be captured in the phrase: "the taller the structure, the bigger the shadow". Yes, this explains at least some of what is going on with the man who would be President - and there is a lesson there for all of us.

The shadow or shadow self is a notion popularized by pioneering Psychologist Carl Jung, who wrote:

"Everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected."

The shadow consists of the unclaimed parts of ourselves -- the parts of our personality, behaviors, desires, insecurities, sins and vulnerabilities that we cannot bear to own. As a result, we repress them, ignore them, and leave them to grow in silence like the black mold inside a wall. Finally, one day, these unclaimed parts of ourselves begin to attach to the people or things that will eventually make them plain to the world.

It seems that the larger your public image and the greater your opportunity to influence others (the taller the structure), the less likely it is that you will want to face the things that lie in your own shadow. Our refusal to claim these things and subject them to the light sets us up for the empowerment of two versions of ourselves -- each operating independently of the other. When they meet at last, it can be humiliating, explosive and contradictory. But, if coaxed into the light by grace, there can be a tremendous amount of healing, redemption and deep reassurance that we are truly loved "as is".

In the evangelical world, we have a growing number of stories of those who have come to encounter their shadow selves too late -- both King David and Ted Haggard come to mind. And yet, if anything, our faith - if it is truly biblical - should not strengthen the repression and disconnection that empowers our shadow. "If we walk in the light," John writes, "as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin". But, in speaking of the shadow in his own way, the Apostle also goes on to warn: "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (I John 1: 7, 8). And so, it seems, we meet Jesus, one another and even our true selves only when we do so "in the light".

"Edwards should have been more accountable", we might say and, indeed, he should. My observation, however, is that what is sometimes called "accountability" is only another form of repression and self-deceit that does not allow us to truly face the parts of ourselves of which we are ashamed. Accountability (as it is commonly practiced) may be good, but it will not bring wholeness and integration if we only wind up hiding from the light rather than courageously walking in it: "confess your sins (faults) to one another, and pray for each other, that you may be healed", James writes. Indeed.

There is a cautionary tale in the story of John Edwards. Imagine how his life and family, and the lives of many others around him, would be different had he chosen to deal differently with the growing disconnect in his life. But doing so requires some very unique kinds of relationships with God, a few trustworthy friends, and ourselves. Such relationships enable enough humility, vulnerability and honesty that we can claim what lies hidden in our shadow and expose it to the light. Sadly, high flyers risk much in developing such relationships and in keeping them intact while the wheels of achievement spin. But, as Edwards reminds us, they risk far more if they don't.

(Coming soon: More thoughts inspired by "The Politician")

I'm Reading "The Politician"

I've been intrigued with Senator John Edwards for awhile now (see my earlier post about him). But then I am also intrigued by train wrecks, spontaneous combustion and those movies where a piano falls out of a window on to someone's head. Perhaps that is why I got my own copy of Andrew Young's insider book about John Edwards: "The Politician". It's a behind the scenes view of Edwards' rise and fall as a politician, family man and overall human being.

Frankly, if it was just another story of an ambitious political figure caught in the act, I'd probably pass. Plenty of those to go around. But I am drawn to the Edwards' story because, in a way, he is like me. Not politically, but on a more personal level.

Edwards portrayed himself as a "family values" guy, like me. So far (I'm about 1/2 through the book) Andrew Young portrays him that way, too -- of course, we haven't met Reille Hunter yet. But I note that Edwards married Elizabeth the year after I married Robin and, like us, they had four children.

John Edwards is also a sparkling example of a "successful" boomer. He was born two years before me, played football in high school and graduated college with a law degree. Okay, I don't have a law degree and I never played football, but, in my youth, I thought I might want to grow up to be a lawyer. As a politician, Edwards was fond of pointing out that he came from humble roots before he "made it big".

Like Robin and me, Edwards and his wife have also endured family tragedies and difficulties along the way including the death of their son, Wade, in a freak auto accident. Of course, Robin and I survived her accident, but we understand how your life can radically change in only a moment's time.

And, finally, Edwards is a North Carolina man which makes him a product of that classic Southern culture that also shaped the heart of my own mother, a Greensboro-born graduate of Graham High School in the 1930's. Many of my favorite childhood memories go to my summer-long visits to Edwards' home state of North Carolina. After crossing the country by train with my mother, we would spend weeks there visiting her family and revisiting her roots. It was in rural NC that I first encountered fireflies, chiggers, ticks, and fishing from brim in a mill pond. I also learned the glories of Southern foods like fried okra, pound cake, grits, biscuits and gravy, and vegetables straight from the garden.

But the most intriguing thing to me about John Edwards is that he and I both confess a born-again faith in Christ. His faith was formed in the kind of Southern Baptist environment that formed the witness of another famous Southern political figure: Jimmy Carter. Like Jimmy, Edwards made no secret of his faith while in the public eye. This is one more reason why his story grabs me and compels me. I want to do my own postmortem on the public image of this ambitious political rising star so as to better understand his current descent into chaos and shame and to see if there are any signs of hope for someone who has so thoroughly lost his way.

I should probably confess here that I have never truly admired John Edwards nor did I feel that he was sincere about all that "two America's" stuff (a line, the book says, that came from the mind of David Axelrod). Nevertheless, I can't wait to get to the part about Reille Hunter because it seems to me that she entered his life like a guided missile.

The bottom line: I want to learn about John Edwards because he is human, vulnerable, and full of contradictions and, well, so am I. As I make more progress, I'll share any insights worth noting.