The Husband
I just realized that I can be surprisingly efficient and consistent if I give my fears space instead of trying to hide them.
I mean...
I am still fucking scared.
This whole video thing scares the shit out of me.
But acknowledging it, giving it the space it deserves, letting it circulate in my head for a while, and then gently putting it aside helps a lot.
Meanwhile, I can feel my focus slowly shifting from fear to problem-solving.
For example, the first thing I should probably figure out is what I actually want to talk about.
Really.
Before getting scared...
It is worth knowing exactly what the fuck I am scared of.
That is how irrational fear is.
I am afraid of something that not only hasn't happened yet...
I don't even know exactly what it is.
I just know that I am afraid.
But...
Afraid of what?
This is how fear slowly loses its power over me.
I don't need to rush.
I don't need to fight it.
I don't need to destroy it.
It is enough to sit with it for a while.
Look it in the eyes.
And realize that it is nothing more than an illusion.
A teacher wearing a mask.
But I still have a job to do.
I still have two characters left to create.
There is a reason I saved them for last.
They are the most emotionally complex characters in the play.
The mother.
And the husband.
Because of their emotional investment, they are the hardest to create.
They each have their own truth.
Their own feelings.
Their own shattered dreams.
Their own expectations.
Neither of them is good or bad.
They are simply so deeply connected to the main character that every decision she makes determines the future of their lives as well.
Let's start with the husband.
He is 36 years old. He has always wanted a family, children, and a more traditional life. He deeply loves and respects his wife. Early in their relationship, they agreed to have one or two children when she was around 38 or 39 years old because the main character wanted to focus on her career first.
Secretly, however, he always hoped that she would change her mind.
That quiet hope shapes many of his decisions throughout the story.
When his wife decides to completely change the direction of her career at the age of 34, his dream begins to fall apart. He is terrified that he will never have the family he has always wanted.
When they first got together eight years earlier, he was madly in love with her. He knew they were not a perfect match in terms of personality. He was calm, avoided conflict, and often accepted whatever his wife wanted rather than confronting difficult conversations. He did this because he hoped they would eventually build the family he had always dreamed of.
Meanwhile, his wife never lied about her needs, her plans, or her expectations.
He admired her courage and her intelligence.
Those very qualities blinded him.
He does not reject dreams altogether, but he does not believe in ambitious, career-driven dreams. To him, a meaningful life means having a stable eight-to-four job with a good salary, going on holidays, spending time with family, and building a peaceful home.
His wife's decision to completely change her life forces him out of that comfort zone.
As she begins building the life she truly wants, he feels his own dreams, needs, and future slipping away.
He grew up in a stable but emotionally distant family. His interests were always supported, and he could have become almost anything. But his indecisive nature, combined with the emotional distance within his family, kept him from fully realizing his own potential despite his intelligence and talent.
He believes that love means keeping the peace.
His wife believes that love means being emotionally honest, even when it hurts.
His core belief is simple:
Having a family is the only way to live a meaningful life.
He mistakes comfort for security.
He is not the antagonist.
He is not an obstacle.
He is simply someone who is about to lose something very real:
The life he has spent eight years building.
By the end of the play, he learns that you cannot love someone's imagined future more than the person standing in front of you.