Binge-watching This is Us and Crying

If you wondered what I was up to over Memorial Day Weekend (and most nights now), I am marathon-watching This is Us on Netflix. I am falling in love with the adult versions of Randall, Kevin, and all versions of Jack Pearson. I am late to the game as this show was on prime time television from 2016 to 2022. My sister recommended it time and time again to me and I never took her up on it. Last night I saw the episode where Beth got unceremoniously fired. Has that ever happened to you? Not to me but it has to people I have known and loved: a manager coldly stating, This is Your Last Day at XYZ company, with an HR person in the background, at their elbow, in person or even on Zoom. It is so sad. A punch to the stomach. How can you cheer up the person that has had to endure this dreadful line, thoughts running ragged in their brain, remembering mistakes that should not have amounted to this ... Seriously? Thoughts quickly being overshadowed by memories of time well spent, commitment and late nights at the office getting things done? The friends you've made? The humiliation of that 2-minute stock "line". Maybe it took just one minute for her to say it? Or was it forever?

No, you can't cheer them up. You don't. You support. You hope that time will heal. You feel depressed yourself and you binge-watch This is Us. You cry for yourself almost as much as you do for your jobless friend you love more than anything in the world who certainly deserved better.