As it turns out there can be lots in the stories of adultery by prominent people for all of us. These are powerful people who have a great deal to lose by cheating on their spouses. It makes no sense.
I don't think that President Clinton, Governor Spitzer, Senator Ensign, or Governor Sanford sat down one day and said "I think that today I will do something obviously stupid and wrong that is likely to destroy my family, my self-esteem, and my career." They might as well have, but they probably didn't.
Somehow, they figured that it made sense or that the rules did not apply to them or that they wouldn't get caught. It's easy to laugh at the kid with ADD who says he won't do his homework because the school might burn down tonight, but this looks a lot like the adult equivalent. It's easy to see the folly in the criminal's belief that the rules don't apply to him, but this can be the equivalent just in a different way.
The big lesson for the rest of us most likely is that when it looks like a reasonable risk to break our promises and the rules of society, there probably is a short circuit in our psyche somewhere and it is time for a cooling off period. Time to just stop and put a space between our impulse and action.
These are not things that only bad people, stupid people, immoral people - - ( in other words people who are not like us ) do; though these actions are bad, stupid, and immoral and people who do them earn those labels.
There is no shortage of relationship advice available nor is there a shortage of information about the dangers of infidelity or societal warnings against it.
Clearly there is great danger in the possibility of straying in adultery, infidelity, cheating, against which none of us is immune. It is not about someone else.
We had darned well better be willing to spend time and effort to attend to our mental/emotional/moral health and the health of our relationships
before we find ourselves needing infidelity advice.
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