Iris’ Poor Brain

It's been two days in a row on For Better or For Worse where Iris misinterprets something the physiotherapist said. Yesterday it was “We’re getting there” to “Jim’s getting better” and today she turns “family of friends” to “family and friends”. In both cases, the misinterpretation is putting a more positive spin on the situation that the situation deserves. In one she interprets Jim improving. In the other, she interprets the family being something you can thank, when clearly from their participation in Jim's life, they are not.

It’s interesting that Iris’ rose-coloured glasses view is continually used as the punch line for these “Iris and Jim deal with Jim’s stroke” strips. This is subtler stuff than the fare Iris tossed out in prior times last year, because these are not original thoughts on the part of Iris, but alterations of something someone said. Since the last time we saw Iris, we know she is taking antidepressants, so I wonder if this is Lynn Johnston’s opinion of the effect of antidepressant medication—it takes depressing things you hear and makes you think happy things about them.

If this sequence follows the same as when Jim visited the doctor last fall, then we are in for 2 more days of inspirational messages as Jim and Iris get back in the bus and travel back home. The only question for me now is whether or not Iris will continue this trend of misinterpretation or if we will shift gears to Jim’s thoughts, since Jim’s opinions have been pretty much ignored this time around.