After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 28
After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 28
This podcast discusses each chapter of Choices Like Rivers and each episode is posted directly after the book episode. This corresponds to Chapter 10 Section 3.
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Wow what a bombshell! We knew that Sharon had never gotten married since we see her unmarried when Molly sue arrives and then tells the social worker that she has never been married.
But then we wonder about Will’s baby that she adamantly refused to abort. So many questions.
They had been the perfect couple. He loved her and she loved her. Sometimes though in situations of pressure young minds, and yes old ones too, have trouble negotiating, in arriving at a wise decision.
I may have overplayed the moral’s clause here, but they were a real thing here. My mother was a teacher and she absolutely could not smoke. It was in her contract.
But, the first thing she did as soon as she was pulling away from school each day was to light up a cigarette.
They could have gotten married while she was pregnant, but in a legal position Will was bound by societal pressure. That same country club crowd that had belittled Sharon in the women’s room that night at the club would be relentless if they had gotten married while she was pregnant.
Will seems to be the enemy here, but he wanted to save Sharon from that onslaught and to help save her reputation. He did love her. He could have weathered it as a man, but he couldn’t have saved Sharon.
Sharon only saw things one way. She had lost her first baby to abortion, she had lost baby Even to a move, and she was not going to lose that baby even if it meant leaving the love of her life, Will.
Her heart had turned. It had hardened almost instantly when she perceived her pregnancy was being threatened yet again.
Every suggestion he had made was rejected. She wasn’t even willing to talk about it any longer. Her newly hardened heart had made the decision for her.
Having a baby had become an obsession for Sharon and she would not let anything stand in the way of that.
I am against abortion. But, I believe they could have come to a solution had she allowed an honest discussion with Will.
Eloping would have been a great solution. They didn’t owe anyone an explanation on why they eloped. They may have been chided and teased for it, and yes when Sharon started to show in earnest they would know. But, they would be looked on as having done the right thing and no more would have been said.
And honestly back then it was thought that if you were pregnant when you got married, you didn’t deserve a big wedding and the bride certainly didn’t deserve to wear white.
One of my very best friends got pregnant and they did have a small wedding and we found her a cream, off-white wedding gown because it was an abomination to wear white in her condition.
Sharon just couldn’t look past the immediate lack of elation that she had wanted from Will. She wanted him to be as exuberant as she was. But she had dreaded the entire time that he wouldn’t be and yes, here is another self-fulfilled prophesy.
We do this to ourselves. We get something into our heads and then we don’t budge from it. When we don’t get the immediate reaction from someone that we want, we shut down, often perceiving it as rejection. So, we reject back in return which is exactly what Sharon did.
No flexibility. No understanding. No forgiveness. Just emotional shutdown.
Let this be a lesson to us all to not have a knee-jerk reaction in times like this when we don’t receive the words or emotions that we wanted.
Taking a deep breath, extending a little understanding, will go a long way. Empathy, trying to see things from another’s viewpoint is not common these days. We see things through our eyes only and we draw a hard and fast line.
In order to be empathetic though we have to let our emotional walls down which can mean we are vulnerable to hurt and pain. But it is worth the chance.
What if Sharon had not hardened her heart that night, but had tried to see things from Will’s point of view? What if she had sat through a painful discussion and that might have possibly led to a favorable conclusion?
But no, it was her way or the highway which we as people often take. Can we do better? I think so. Let’s try. What do you say?
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