Dear Cary,
I'm American. My husband is Russian. We're in our 30s, married about two and a half years, and live in London, where my husband is pursuing a Ph.D. We got married so I could stay here with him -- in other words, my five-year residency here with permission to work is based on our marriage certificate. I might add that I married him to be with him, and not because I was particularly interested in living in London or, for that matter, unhappy with my life before.
We got together in part based on love of travel. We took road trips together, went to his country. This was years ago. Four, more or less. Some things happened. He moved here. I did my second year of an MFA program. I never finished. I moved here to be with him when I was about to start my thesis, got, like, a three-year-long case of writer's block, and there goes my life. Now I work part time and wonder what the hell happened to me.
Here is the specific question. It relates to my rights, I think. You see, my husband cannot go anywhere without applying for a visa. This includes going across the Channel to France. The visa process is complex and demanding, and he hates to do it and resents it.
There are also disparities in our background. Mine -- I won't get into his -- includes a little bit of money. Not much. But I have a kitty to dip into, so to speak.
I'm not crazy about London. At first I hated it. Gradually I came to see it as like New York, where I'm from, with the significant difference that here I lack family and support (interesting slip, considering that I'm married). Also, whereas in New York I can get into a car and drive somewhere fun, here I can't even go to Europe. Because he can't. Not that I mind going alone. I like it. But I can't because he can't. You see?
It was depressing two and a half years ago and it's still depressing. I didn't know before I abandoned my old life, sold my car, left my master's program and gave away my cats (to my parents -- I'm not absolutely heartless) that my husband would not be able to travel to Europe. What a crazy thing! Or maybe I knew it perhaps a month before I came here, but I didn't know or let myself think about the extent to which this problem would take over my life.
Life with him is a constant battle I cannot win. He constantly tries to explain himself to me, puncturing holes in my logic and finding fault with everything. Maybe I should be like Sonia in "Crime and Punishment" and give up all my privileges, as he calls them, which are unfairly won by my evil country over his. I went to Paris by myself over a year ago for four days and am still being asked to explain this terrible betrayal. It's true that every time I've taken a trip on my own, totaling 10 days in two and a half years, I haven't asked for his permission or told him in advance. I didn't want to be dissuaded. But it's maddening to constantly be told how difficult it is to be Russian and how ungenerous I am by wanting to do anything at all when I feel I am experiencing the same thing, and quite often wonder why I don't just make my life easier by finding someone with a better passport who understands my need to disappear every now and then without feeling slighted by it.
What are my obligations to him? And what are his to me? I feel like I know what they are, but they don't seem to translate into this combination. I can't deal with feeling so limited.
Of course I love him. But I wasn't always this unhappy.
Thanks.
Stranded
Dear Stranded,
You gave up a great deal to be with this man.
You sold your car and gave away your cats. You left the city and country in which your attitudes and expectations were understood and respected. And then what happened? You got writer's block. I do not think these things are unrelated.
I think you have to leave this man.
It's really that simple.
If there were a way to leave him symbolically in order to meet the needs of your psyche for solitude and autonomy, then perhaps you would not have to divorce him.
If you could leave him, for instance, and go into a room of your own with a door that closes, a door that he will not open if it is closed, a door that he respects, that would be a start.
The door that is closed but not locked symbolizes your choices and your wishes. A door that is locked represents your power. You need for him to respect your wishes, not your power.
You have some power here. You have your own money. But he denigrates that power as privilege, i.e. power that is illegitimate, that you do not deserve. If he respects neither your power nor your wishes, there's no basis for negotiation.
You could get a room of your own outside the relationship. You could just do it. But to get a room of your own within the relationship you need his respect. If you cannot negotiate with mutual respect, if you must negotiate only out of power, then the relationship is not one between two free equals; it is more of an authoritarian relationship in which power decides one's fate.
I do not believe that the creative spirit can thrive under such conditions.
You do not want to have to lock yourself in. It is better to leave and be locked out.
There is much, much more to be said about this, but that is all I feel I can say with certainty and resolve.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What? You want more?
Shares