We watched the movie Waitress tonight, which had been sitting around for weeks from Netflix. I'm not sure what's next (Diana is the Queuemaster), but if we hadn't watched some streamed flicks on the Xbox, we'd definitely not be getting our money's worth.
The movie is essentially about a woman who is in the shittiest of relationships, knows it, and is powerless to leave it. It seems too ridiculous in a movie to be real, but let's face it, we all know people in that situation. Most of us have probably even been there. What I'll never understand is why people who are otherwise perfectly logical and awesome go down that road.
OK, that's not entirely true, I kind of understand it. Even that movie addresses it. Sometimes people don't believe that they're worth more, that people might like them or that something better is even possible (not to mention very likely). My first real relationship was like that, with someone that was lovely in a lot of ways, but failed to meet so many other parameters. I kept in it because I figured it was a one-off opportunity. Stupid.
We have a friend who recently got out of a relationship that was obviously underachieving from the start. The dude was a schmuck. Before you knew it, they were cohabitating anyway, which only made it harder to walk away. Why did she stay in it? In her case it was partly because she didn't know how not to be in a relationship, but it was also because she didn't see any potential for something better. We often lower our standards for character, compatibility, ambition and how we're treated sometimes, because it often feels better to get laid on a regular basis than it does to be alone. (Sounds like some of the dating I did prior to meeting Diana.)
It's tragic to watch, and even more tragic to be a part of it, too blind to see it. I wish someone would hand out instruction manuals for this kind of thing. It's not something I have to worry about anymore, but I hate to see others endure it.
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