The Fifth Dimension, "If I Could Reach You"

Perhaps this blog should be a politics-free zone, but I've been thinking about the John Edwards caper over the past few days. I'm of several minds: His behavior is inexcusable, but infidelity isn't a crime and it doesn't say much about a person's ability to lead or govern. I'm pissed at him for wantonly imperiling the Democratic party (had he been the presidential candidate, this would have been nightmarish), and I agree that it's an actionable offense if he used his PAC monies or other fundraising dollars for hush money and other payoff costs. But I can't pretend I have a high horse to sit on where matters of fidelity are concerned. What can I say - I value honesty, but I find monogamy overrated; like veganism, it's a good idea, but it's not for everyone.

Which leads me, indirectly, to "If I Could Reach You", one of the last big hits for the Fifth Dimension and certainly one of their most unfairly overlooked. Marilyn McCoo sings from the perspective of The Other Woman: perhaps a prostitute, as my friend Mike has speculated, or maybe just someone who's being strung along by a man already in a relationship. "It's hours before dawn, and there's no one who'd rather be with you," she sings the effective and stark lyric, defeat resonating with every word. "I let you take my love, knowing you don't love me." Yet she continues in the sad situation, hoping against hope that something will change; that if he can't love her, he might at least recognize her deep and abiding love for him, and that might be enough for him to stay. Marilyn pays no mind at all to her lover's significant other, if indeed he has one, demonstrating how when love becomes all-consuming it can turn a world solipsistic, consequences be damned, other hearts be ignored.

The song has no direct resonance to John Edwards or Rielle Hunter, and I'm not justifying or condoning anything they've done. But I do have sympathy for the situation; more important, I hope it won't distract us any further from the subjects that actually need to be discussed in this presidential run-up. Let's focus on negotiating our own relationships with honesty and compassion rather than fussing over others'. Relationships, they're complicated things.