Depression Revisited
The author of Lady Chatterly’s Lover (a book that rocked the British literary world many years ago), D.H Lawrence, spoke of one of his characters, Richard Lovatt, saying that he spent his life wrestling with himself and calling it Australia. What do you think he meant by that? He meant that Lovatt lived a restless life without peace and blamed it on where he lived—Australia. But the author knew better. Lovatt’s problem lay within himself and not his surroundings.
Sometimes it’s the case that the environment crushes a spirit and makes life a misery. John Bunyan tells us that even Giant Despair got depressed now and then—on sunny days. Everyone will experience emotional dips and drops but as sure as there are things that can drive us down there are many other things that can raise us up and when those things come we grab them with gratitude and smile again. If a person can’t see the thousand things in his or her life that lift the heart he/she probably won’t see number one-thousand-and-one should it arrive. If the abundance of blessings in our lives isn’t enough to brighten our eyes I’m not sure that our eyes can be lightened by another series of blessings. (I’m not addressing Sudan, Zimbabwe, run-down ghettos or any of those hell-holes where people truly suffer. I’m not even addressing people that endure chronic pain or ceaseless economic pressure, bone-deep betrayal and the like. These too are great sufferers.)
I truly believe that for some of us depression will be our companion all our lives. Chemical or hormonal imbalances, an environment that crushes the spirit, loved ones that keep us down with ceaseless criticism or endless demands, trauma in childhood, and on and on and on. There are such sad souls and they have good reason to be down but there are those of us whose unhappiness comes from our greed and a hypersensitivity that can be corrected with some help and self-discipline. Some lingering unhappiness is associated with our sinfulness. We’re envious of those who got promoted while we didn’t and lose sight of the fact that we are in a job we really enjoyed until X got an upgrade. We’re dissatisfied with our moderate facial appearance or form when we see someone beautiful. We can’t enjoy our degree of intellectual giftedness because some kid we know is a whiz. Ahab owns half of Palestine and feels fine until he sees Naboth’s lovely little plot of land. Off he goes to bed sulking, we’re told, because the man smiled and turned down Ahab’s offer to buy. Those of us who are like that give a bad name to those who have some real grounds for feeling depressed.
Let’s grow up, get over it (whatever "it" is) and be happy!
