Selective Amnesia

I was recently asked by someone who attended an event with Scarlett how I did it for 30 years.

But first a little background.

Scarlett has a big ego and low to no self esteem.  It is very common, though by no means always guaranteed, that  on any particular outing, whether that be attending a play, going to a concert, the county fair or even just a run of the mill shopping trip/eating out  she will manage to lose her temper over the slightest thing, insult workers and wait staff, make snarky comments concerning others and generally behave in a very boorish manner.

I have lost track of the number of times I've silently told myself that this is the last time.  I will not be going to or doing _________ with her ever again.  But when the next time came around, there I was going or doing the thing I'd sworn I'd never do again.

Why?

Selective amnesia.

The only way my mind could deal with what she was doing was to put in way back in the recesses of my memory.  We could have fight on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning I could not tell you what we had fought about.  She could have made a rude comment to someone out in the lobby while waiting for a play, followed by additional rude, inappropriate comments during the play and by the time we got home my memory was pretty much fogged over as to the particulars.

This was simply an act of self preservation on my part.  The idea that I was married to someone who could behave this way and still stay married was something my mind could not accept.  So it did the next best thing.  It "forget" all the rude remarks, the insane questions, the connections she would make that were not valid connections at all, the conclusions she would draw based on little to no evidence, her statements of tact that were anything but fact.

I am told that away from all of this lies a world populated by normal people.  I hope to meet those normal people someday soon and leave this world of insanity that I've been dealing with.  Oh how I hope!