THE DIMMING OF A STAR
(…from a late-in-the-day peccadillo…)

Everyone stumbles now and then while striding along life’s pathways, some more often than others, and more egregiously besides.

But in cases like that of General Petraeous, who just resigned his position as head of the CIA because of an extra-marital affair with a comely journalist-biographer, it is a sad conclusion to an otherwise brilliant public career. The diming of a star…from a late-in-the-day peccadillo.

There are, apparently, undercurrents of national security and, perhaps, political issues involved in this affair, but, the General’s taking the initiative to resign before any of that could damage the organization he has ably directed since taking it over, is a mark of his basic character and integrity, despite that moment of personal failure.

Well, all of this should remind us that, sometimes, the closeness of working relationships can go astray, and this bit of doggerel verse from an old unpublished manuscript may just sum it up for us:

“Propinquity, that sneaky brat, set to its task with gentle and tender plea, to subvert my heart from me.

And now, I can’t help but ask… how it managed to do …just that!”

CENTURION