This morning's New York Times brings a story on John and Elizabeth Edwards worth sharing. I will provide a few highlights, but I strongly recommend following the link and reading the entire story. It's free and just a click away.
It will help understand the political motivation of John and Elizabeth Edwards. Tragedy can make one bitter or allow one to choose a path with heart, a path based on a deepending sense of compassion. I believe this story shows which path John and Elizabeth Edwards chose.
In an instant, a world in which everything seemed right suddenly seemed all wrong. John and Elizabeth Edwards’s 16-year-old son, Wade, their first-born, was dead, with nothing to blame but the gust of wind that had flipped his car off a wide-open road.
NY Times: After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics
In the bleak months that followed, the Edwardses looked for ways to keep Wade’s name alive, taking comfort even in seeing it printed on credit-card offers that arrived in the mail. Determined to honor their son publicly and fill their life with meaning, they created a learning center named after him. They chose to have more children. And they decided Mr. Edwards would enter politics, a path that took him first to the United States Senate and now to his second run for the presidency.
The campaign is a shared mission. Elizabeth Edwards is her husband’s most trusted adviser, his chief provocateur and his most popular surrogate, mobbed at campaign stops by people who admire her struggle against breast cancer and share stories of children lost. She describes the presidency as not just his quest, but hers, too.
NY Times: After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics
This is a very long story. It discusses Elizabeth's role in the campaign in depth and even talks of their years together in law school. It describes the events after their son, Wade, passed and how each grieved in his or her own way. It also discusses the return of the cancer this year to Elizabeth. Tragedy and pain have been companions to the Edwards at times. But it has toughened them, as well as deepened their compassion for others:
An Edwards campaign television advertisement called "30 Years" featured Mrs. Edwards speaking into the camera about her husband’s strength: "It’s unbelievably important that in our president we have someone who can stare the worst in the face, and not blink."
Mrs. Edwards’s illness has given the campaign more purpose, friends say.
NY Times: After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics
It ends describing the reaffirming of their vows by the Edwards this year:
In the hospital room after her diagnosis, Mr. Edwards had asked his wife to marry him again. They renewed their bond on July 30, their 30th anniversary, standing in their backyard before a small group of friends and relatives.
NY Times: After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics
I believe it is worth reading the entire article and then commenting below. Please read it:
NY Times: After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics
I also want to wish all Kossaks, even those who support a different candidate, a Happy and Healthy New Year.
On a personal note, I believe that anger can be an insidious poison to one's self. The worse anger is justified anger, the anger one has when one is wronged unfairly and knows it. Better to let go of anger. That's for me. I don't need that poison in the next year.
My prediction for Next Year is that Edwards wins Iowa and finishes either first or second in New Hampshire. You may not have heard it here first, but you heard it here!
Happy New Years all!
I'll leave you with John Edwards' fundamental message of change.