I was watching the Good Doctor the other night (I really don’t know why I keep watching this show), and aside from the highly implausible medical threads and the messed-up personal lives of everyone in that hospital, there was another unrealistic event. It seems that Dr. Glassman’s wife felt that he was too controlling and inflexible and decided to leave him. Okay, that’s not what’s unrealistic. Despite Dr. Glassman’s persona of a curmudgeon hiding the heart of a teddy bear, he is rather controlling and inflexible with his wife. What’s unrealistic is that when Mrs. Glassman made her spur-of-the-moment decision, she pulled out a small duffel bag and stuffed all her worldly belongings into it within five minutes while her husband stood by, watching helplessly and trying to get her to change her mind.
Although this scenario is quite common in television shows and movies, it could never happen this way in real life. At least in my life. First of all, I would have to spend at least thirty minutes searching for and unearthing a suitcase or duffel bag. This would require a lot of shoveling other items out of the way in order to uncover a usable bag that didn’t have a broken zipper or a hole in it. That would cause me to lose a lot of momentum and rethink my decision to leave. On TV, the suitcase is always conveniently located under the bed or sitting on the floor of the closet in plain sight with no other junk on top of it. Then, there is no way I could cram all my belongings into one small carry-on. I would have to go through my stuff, methodically, and decide which items I needed to take with me and which I would leave behind for my husband to deal with. Even an overnight trip for me requires a certain amount of time and thought to determine which things I really need, and even then, invariably, I forget one or two important things.
No, I would need at least a week (or a month) to sort out all the belongings I couldn’t live without, plus a U-Haul. Besides, I would probably have to do laundry because I’m sure the clothes I wanted would all be dirty. But not the characters on TV. They manage to meticulously pack everything they need to start a whole new life into one small bag, and there is never any indication they will pick up the “rest” later. Not only are they much more organized than I am in order to pack up and leave a long-term relationship, but they are able to do so under extreme emotional duress. I couldn’t possibly handle this task in the heat of the moment with my husband hovering over me stirring my fragile emotions into mush. I would probably end up with no shoes or underwear, not to mention my reading glasses and medications.
I suppose it’s a good thing my husband and I have a good relationship and I don’t anticipate having to make a hasty exit anytime in the near future. Mrs. Glassman should have learned to just live with her cranky husband. Leaving is way too much trouble.
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