What should be a defining moment?

I have had many moments in my life that I felt defined me as a person.  I think that lately I have just had a lot of time to decide what I am going to allow to define who I am and what I am not.  For those of you that have followed my blog over the past few months may know that I am a Maria Shriver fan.  I really love her book entitled "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known..." I am sure that if Maria were to write that book today one of her ten things may have changed.  I wonder would she have changed her chapter about marriage to a chapter entitled "do not trust your husband".

Please do not think I am a man hater, but trust does not come easy to me.  I know now that I made mistakes before I ever got married.  There were several warning signs that I chose to ignore.  I refer to this as lessons learned.  However, I think Maria had it figured out and even her marriage was not safe.  For example, #4 on her list was that "Your Behavior has Consequences".  She states several times through that chapter that no one is responsible for your choices as an adult but YOU.  #5, "Be Willing to Fail", personally or professionally.  And last but not least, #8, "Marriage is a Hell of a lot of Work".  (Sidenote, she wrote this book in 2000).

So, why do I care? Well I just like a good story like most people and this headline of Arnold's dual life has quite frankly pissed me off.  Maria is a well accomplished woman, and not just by birth-rite.  She was not afraid to fail, to fall in love, or even challenge public opinion.  And even with this recent tragedy she has held her head up high, publicly supported her children and continued to uphold her classy reputation.  So, I hope this is not a defining moment in her life to others... I would hate to think that if we Google her ten years from now that one of the first things we see is "Arnold cheats on Maria with chubby housekeeper and makes love child outside of his picture perfect marriage."   

But on a happy note... the new season of the Bachelorette started today!!! Love it! I will post about my favorites later this week! :)