In all the different movies or shows I’ve watched, I’ve noticed a trend about the traits given to the leading actors and actresses. They don’t explain themselves. They wait for time to reveal the truth to all those who with suspicions or with unresolved doubts. It just seems so much cooler that way.
For example, Julie and Mark are married. Julie takes her daughter on a trip to the zoo, and relies on her close friend Adam for the ride. Mark calls Julie and asks where she is and who she’s with. Julie tells him that she took her daughter to the zoo. As Julie hangs up, Mark hears Adam’s voice in the background. A jealous Mark rushes to the zoo to meet them, but he doesn’t tell Julie this. Meanwhile, Julie, her daughter, and Mark have left the zoo.
During the car ride, Julie’s daughter is about to have diarrhea. Adam tell her there’s no way she’s going to soil herself in his newly cleaned car, so he pulls over at a seedy hotel so the girl can use the restroom. As Julie and Adam drive away from the hotel, with Julie’s relieved daughter lying in the back seat, Mark happens to drive by right at that moment. And guess what he sees? Of course all he sees is Julie and Adam sitting in a car, driving away from a seedy hotel.
Back at home, Julie’s daughter is lying on the couch. The nanny tells Mark that Julie’s daughter is lying on the couch because she’s sick, and she’s been sick since the morning. Mark begins to wonder whether or not Julie really took her to the zoo. He assumes that Julie concocted the whole zoo story in order to cover up the affair she was having with Adam. If the kid was sick all day, how could she have gone to the zoo? And he can’t deny what he saw with his own eyes.
So, he takes the information he’s seen with his own eyes and weaves together the happenings of that day. And although the tapestry he’s woven portrays an image it hurts to look at, he assures himself that it is the truth. The ugly truth. His reactions to Julie change. He collects clues that confirm his suspicions. He scolds Julie, saying that she shouldn’t enjoy herself while neglecting her daughter. Julie says she feels bad because she didn’t know the kid was going to have diarrhea. But hey, she was thankful for the hotel. Mark tells her, wow, she has some nerve to say that out loud. Julie says, what nerve? I paid for the services, I wasn’t using the place for free. Mark storms off disgusted.
Mark treats Julie like a cheater, a liar. He talks down to her and pushes her around. Despite knowing that Mark has misunderstood her about something, Julie never explains herself. Even after she finds out what he has believed to be the truth this entire time, she keeps quiet.
Eventually, one day, Adam and Mark meet to talk business. Mark is so disgusted with Adam that he lets him have it. Adam doesn’t like being accused when he has no idea what he’s done wrong. Eventually, Mark tells Adam he has some nerve acting like nothing happened when the other day he took his wife to a seedy hotel. Adam asks Mark what he saw and Mark eventually realizes he’s made a big mistake. And only then does he realize just how badly he’s treated Julie. It seems much cooler that he found out from someone else instead of Julie. Do you really think he’d believe anything Julie said anyway? It would’ve just been an excuse….not reason. You can’t use reason with a person who’s mad, because just being mad lacks all reason. So, Julie looks like a noble heroine for bearing the accusations and attitude while she was innocent of the crime.
It’s not always easy to keep quiet when we feel the accusations are unjustified. Often, our natural reaction is explain ourselves before anyone has even asked. Many times, even if we had explained, no one would have believed us. Sometimes the truth is too incredible to be easily accepted or understood. With confidence in the merit of our decisions and the willingness to accept whatever happens as a result, whether other people know or not is no longer an issue. If only we could practice keeping our mouths shut- especially without hoping that the truth will reveal itself – we could play the heroine too.
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