Five Lessons We Can Learn from Meredith Grey

Seeing how most of what we flop down and flip through on television is pure candy for the mind, I started thinking hard about my favorite brain taffy, Grey's Anatomy. If I'm so attached to this hour long show, what could I possibly be getting out of it besides pure entertainment? It wasn't until after I started reading Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar, that I realized how attached I am to the tragedy found in love and life. Perhaps it is what I can relate to better than anything else.

Looking at GA's namesake, Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), I thought, with so many fans out there, surely we can learn something from our blue glassy-eyed protagonist. Mulling it over, I came up with a list of five lessons we can garner from her. It's meant to provoke a bit of thought, but not to be taken too severely.

Lesson 1 - If your sweet, but pushy, step-mother dies while under your care, your MIA father just might slap you silly!

Never mind the fact that you did everything you could, or that you're just an intern and not the attending care giver. Yeah, he said he trusted you, but what were you supposed to do? Would he have back handed Dr. Burk if he were the one breaking the news to him? I highly doubt it. Somehow, because you're his kid, it's your fault. I guess we can kind of see why a woman like Ellis Grey, Meredith's mother, would leave a man like this in the first place. So what do we do in the future? Have some other doctor break the news to him. We'll send our condolences later after he's gotten the chance to calm down.

Lesson 2 - Even if the person you love (and who claims to love you) saves your life, they still may break your heart.

Just when things are going so well, we find the person who saves us from ourselves, and they turn around and become disgusted because they had to save us from ourselves. The fact is, it happened. They can't hold it against us forever can they? Yes, actually. They can. What will we do in the future? Explain why we did what we did and hope they understand. If they simply can't move beyond it, we'll thank them for saving our lives, and like Dori from Finding Nemo says, "...just keep swimming..."

Lesson 3 - If the beautiful wife of a guy you're seeing becomes your co-worker, she will steal your spotlight.

So how foolish will we look scampering after a man who chooses to reconcile with his cheating wife? Quite. I suppose it's a bit tricky since we can't just transfer somewhere else at will. Our best bet for the future is to give the hot vet (or guys like him) more of our time, and not let McDreamy become our McNightmare.

Lesson 4 - Never work under your mother's ex-lover, who has made a vow to her to take care of you on her death bed.

Poor Meredith has no clue that this has taken place, but since we do, it still counts. Don't you love people who swear they know how to live your life better than you do? Since hospital chief Dr. Richard Webber has taken it upon himself to ensure Meredith never gets involved with a chief herself (because of his own failed marriage) he, therefore, is trying to curb her boyfriend's ambitions. This know-it-all is about to unknowingly serve Meredith hell on a hot dirty porcelain plate. What do we do in the future? Distance ourselves from our mother's former lovers. Who needs 'em?

Lesson 5 - If your mother is a disapproving domineering woman who is losing her mind, and you father, who abandoned you, is a basket case, it's okay to seek professional help.

This should be obvious, but since it's not so obvious to Doctor Merideth, perhaps it's not so obvious to a lot of us. Maybe if she had sought help earlier she'd have been able to realize her own self worth and avoided bumping and grinding with George O'Mally, and could have shaken herself from the death grip of Dr. Derrick Shepard. Low self esteem is a killer pull. Just look at what it's doing to Izzy. So what do we do in the future? Toss the stigma of mental illness to the wind and make time for a therapist. If we have time to date two people at the same time, surely we have time to set aside for ourselves.

There are so many other lessons to be garnered from so many other characters, but I felt it important to start with our leading lady, who's show seems to be inspired by the widely studied medical text book, Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (or Gray's Anatomy, as it is commonly known). I hope this list helps, because if I'm going to stuff myself with such colorful mind candy, it should have some worth, even if it is a bit grey.