Yesterday was a day to consider people's different coping styles in marriage. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal (henceforth WSJ) about a couple whose marriage was strained when the wife first developed breast cancer and then, as a result of her treatments, heart problems serious enough to require a transplant. At night, we saw The Door in the Floor, a movie about a couple having to live after being in the same car in which their two children, one of whom was driving, died.
In both cases the husband and the wife used different strategies in order to continue living. In the real world, the wife did not want to discuss her condition extensively, her husband did. In the fictional world, the wife withdrew from life, the husband became a womanizer.
Trying to cope with these types of deus ex machina events is a lot more difficult than facing the usual problems of marriage centering around money, sex and in-laws. These problems are, in general, caused by something you have a degree of control over. Whereas, disease and death are your masters.
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