Hello Tattlers,
I just joined after working my way through the various AE threads (at the pace that this is going, I’ll need to quit my day job to keep up). May I first say how much I appreciate the wit and reflection you guys bring to the discussion? Contrary to many other forums, this one is a joy to read!
I’ve been loosely following the demise of the AE/IG marriage ever since her first Twitter post about it. I had never seen or heard of AE outside of The Vampire Diaries/The Originals (I was more invested in those shows than becomes a woman of my age
); IG’s face was more familiar, but I didn’t even know these two were married until all hell broke loose. Never in my life have I publicly commented on other people’s breakups and overall drama, but this one really is in a league of its own. Sooo... here are my thoughts.
1. Dignity
Somehow it strikes me that AE labours under the misapprehension that “dignity” is code for “make your soon-to-be ex-husband’s life easier” or “how dare a woman, ANY woman, speak up”. It’s anything but. It’s about treating HERSELF with dignity. Nightly booze-fuelled rants, curling up in fetal position for the better part of one year, obsessing over anonymous SM accounts and believing herself incapable of carrying on without a husband who has long moved on are not tokens of self-respect. She has said on numerous occasions that this is how she deals with things and that she needs to do it this way, but I suspect that sound and sober analyses of what she truly wants and needs are not her forte at the moment.
2. Loss
Losing a loved one sucks. No matter the circumstances. Most of us have experienced loss at some point in our lives, and we’ve all dealt with it in different ways. However, the operative words are “deal with it”. And that’s what’s not happening here. There is blaming, cyber-stalking, threatening, accusing, denying – but there’s no action, at least none that would be evident to the onlooker (and all of us have been invited to look on, so we’re allowed to voice our opinions on the matter(s)). If AE remains stuck in this cycle and can’t move towards at least some form of acceptance, I doubt that she’ll experience another moment of genuine happiness in her life. Not even if BW perishes in the fire of a thousand Alices.
3. Delusion
Oh, I remember this so well. The hope that he sees the light and comes crawling back to my door. The certainty that his silence MUST mean something: Is he too scared of rejection after what he did to me? Is he looking for the right words to say so I take him back? Is he seeing my face while he’s shagging her? The steadfast hope that today’s the day when the phone rings, he shows up at my doorstep, the email pings with his 20-pages-long apology letter, a friend sends me a picture of the new woman leaving his house in tears because he just told her he can’t get over me no matter how hard he tries.
IT. WON’T. HAPPEN.
IG’s likely not being silent because he’s looking for the right words, but because he has nothing more to say. Chances are that he’s very much enjoying shagging BW or whoever he may be shagging right now, and even bigger chances are that he’s not seeing AE’s face while he’s at it. The phone won’t ring, the letter won’t come. And the sooner AE tries to find a way out of this delusion, the better for her.
4. The Thing About “Crazy”
Without knowing either of the two, I can imagine that one of the things that drew IG to AE in the beginning was her temperament. From what I’ve seen and read so far, it seems to me that she always had a degree of crazy in her eyes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Crazy people are oftentimes the most interesting, and I can say from experience that the crazy-eyed men I’ve met – and there were a few of those – were all phenomenal shags.
They were also high, high maintenance. This works for a while, but when the high maintenance part starts to overshadow the fun sides of crazy, not even the crazy-monkey shagging can make up for all the emotional exhaustion.
My impression is that AE still sees only the “good crazy” when she looks in the mirror but turns a blind eye on all the ways she has changed since first meeting IG – and therefore she doesn’t understand how he can reject all that he loved about her in the first place. So unless she opens her eyes to the full reflection in the mirror, she can never meet the person she is now (and work on that person as we all have to).
5. The Future
At this moment in time, it seems highly unlikely that AE gets her act together and starts building a new life for herself anytime soon. But here’s the thing: the public loves fallen heroes. Everyone will remember the ranting and raving, but if she picks herself up bit by bit and focuses on the life she CAN have, she might be able to resurrect her career eventually. There could even be a new relationship somewhere beyond the horizon (“but I want THIS relationship back” is NOT an option). That is, if she pulls herself out of her downward spiral. From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like she will before she hits rock bottom – and I don’t even want to think about what rock bottom is going to look like in this case.
Okay, this turned out way longer than planned... sorry about that! Thanks to everyone who made it through this doorstop of a post!