For what you are remembered

This story is ripe with so many moral lessons, I'm almost unsure which to address. Reads the first sentence:

London — John Profumo, a former British cabinet minister whose liaison with a prostitute nearly brought down a government after revelations that she was also involved with a Soviet spy, has died.

That's what leads off the news that a once powerful government official has departed this earth. Not that he did wonderful things for his country, his family, society in general, but that he had a tryst with a hooker who also was servicing a Russian spy.

Moral lesson #1: seemingly small choices matter.

The third paragraph:

Mr. Profumo, who spent more than 40 years redeeming himself with charity work for London's poor, was Britain's secretary of state for war when he was involved with Christine Keeler in 1963. At the same time, she was seeing a Soviet naval attaché and intelligence agent.

Moral lesson #2: No matter what good you do afterward (notes to Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon), you'll always publicly have to bear the weight of your poor choices.

Moral lesson #3: Good works by themselves are not healing. They may help those on the other end of your works, but they will do nothing to heal broken relationships.

Mr. Profumo first denied the affair, but after the publication of a letter he wrote her, he resigned on June 5, 1963.

Moral lesson #4: Lies seldom profit.

Mr. Profumo retreated from the public eye and looked for something to do with his life. His wife, actress Valerie Hobson, whom he married in 1954, stood by him throughout the scandal. She died in 1998.

Moral lesson #5: a good wife is a wonderful asset.

Mr. Profumo was a wealthy man, the Oxford-educated son of a prominent lawyer descended from an Italian aristocrat who settled in England in 1880. He owned a large stake in the Provident Life Association, and a Swiss takeover of the insurance firm in 1981 yielded Mr. Profumo more than $12-million (U.S.).

Moral lesson #6: Money is no guarantor of a fruitful life.

About a year after his public disgrace, Mr. Profumo found work as an unpaid helper at Toynbee Hall, a charity for the poor in London's East End. He began as a dishwasher, became a fundraiser for the charity, then its chairman, and eventually its president. He also worked in a social club for alcoholics.

Moral lesson #7: Often when our choices are slim, due to earlier poor choices, the paths before us are blessings. While we'd not have considered them otherwise, doors being closed defers attention to other doors behind which are manifold blessings for others - and ourselves.

Moral lesson #8: Money, by itself, seldom frees one to be generous with one's talents and works. Money, in the presence of other factors (in this case, disgrace and a humilty embraced), can indeed free one to be generous with those assets.

A friend, the late bishop Jim Thompson, said in 1993 that Mr. Profumo “says he has never known a day since it happened when he has not felt shame.”

Moral lesson #9: the worldly ramifications of bad choices never quite go away. The spirit can be renewed as forgiveness is had, but always there are those ramifications.

In 1975, the Queen made Mr. Profumo a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) for his charity work.

Moral lesson #10: the great man is great because he is seeking merely to be good.