(A Little Discussion about Depression, in case someone you love deals with it.)

One

of the SLY things Depression does so well is wait for you to feel a valid sadness, frustration, or anger, and then sneak up on you...crawl up on you... and turn your head towards more old or new moments of sadness, frustration, and danger.

It rides your shoulders, with its reins in your brain, and tells you where to go. Unless you're always on guard, and unless you have the additional help you may need, you are on path that only goes further into deeper, darker, and more dangerous places.

Depression pretends to be your Best Friend... your truest companion who won't desert you. You grow accustomed to having this life-time partner. There is a comfort in this reliable, unsteady steadiness.

If that wasn't enough, Depression allows you to find various creative outlets for the raw material it so freely gives you. You can build a career on it.

I can assure you that almost without exception, when you experience sad music, art, theater, or film, it is the result of an artist struggling with his or her "Best Friend". NOT that I think artists are more prone to Depression, but I DO know they are more likely to provide the evidence it exists within them. John Doe, going to the job everyday, and having very few chances to express his Vision, may never be noticed owning such thoughts & feelings.

("The Pawnbroker" immediately comes to mind for the choice of film, and Nausea" by Sartre, for the book.)

Depression promotes a Vision about relationships - whether between people, inanimate objects, cultures, or Gods. It tends to be negative, though often accurate. It encourages you to not only SEE but THINK and BELIEVE, and once enough evidence has accrued, you have not only a Vision, but an Expectation. This is when your Best Friend feels fulfilled. You two are tight...

Depression is NEVER about ONE THOUGHT. It is about the Vision and the HUGE FILES of the PAST being called up for use in the PRESENT, and the EXPECTATION it will continue.

Depression is an electro-magnet.

The sights & memories being magnetized & pulled in are NOT illusions. ALL OF US have plenty of material with which to "work". It IS real, and it DID or DOES exist. Depression, after magnetizing, is a mode of collating... arranging "material" into useful patterns for the construction of a new, major Episode or Chapter.

SOME of you KNOW what I'm talking about, but this chat is mainly for those of you who DON'T, or have minor experiences with it through someone else. Neither of these are enough for a good understanding. Be grateful for its foreignness. I don't know how much CAN be understood by someone on "the outside", and I'm not sure it's an unfortunate position unless you have a family member who is in your daily life. It's then a necessity no different than understanding diabetes or cancer. They exist, they need care, and they can kill.

So, here we are in the days after the "anniversary" Memories & Feelings of 9 - 11 - 01. No one had the same experience, yet, we as a culture, shared the same experience. For a person like me, especially while trying to honor those who died needlessly - not to mention those who died heroically - one of my efforts was to keep other events from being inserted (by Depression) into my thoughts and feelings about the attacks on the U.S..

It wasn't easy. Like I said, I have to be on guard all the time. I found a number of highly sad and reliably depressive memories ready to re-sprout like Black Poppies. For some moments, pure strength of Will is what I used. For others, I now have pre-constructed mechanisms for putting them back in their places... some created by me, others are gifts of Alternative Visions from insightful people close to me, and others are due to my observing or reading about someone else's thoughts or actions.

Years ago, my Wife gave me one of my best Alternative Visions. I needn't go into it now.

The amazing thing is how incredibly "democratic" the Messengers of Insight can be. It doesn't HAVE to be Sartre (although he was a good one for me). It can be the single, unpretentious comment of a stranger. It can be from your child, spouse, parent, neighbor, a film, tee-vee show, or watching wild birds in your own yard.

But, the Messengers can't make you think. That's on you. If you don't want to think, they don't care. They go right on with their lives.

Use it or lose it.