I think depression is expectable in America, because more than anyone else (until now, at least) we have given up our sense of community for the sake of freedom, material goods, and keeping busy. The latter things keep depression at bay, but only partly. In fact we need more security, love, and continuity. In England there seemed to be more community, but not much more — most other countries must have more than either country. So don’t feel odd in being depressed.(I didn’t know you were, except briefly in 2005.)

Medicine loves to treat depression, but sometimes depression is just normal sadness, and doesn’t need to be treated. (ABC News just reported this, and I ‘d agree.) Your depression may have been more sociological, though.

Similarly, I think a depressed person often lacks friends and/or often lacks a moral code. Reporter Mike Wallace was quite harsh and heartless at times, and he was often depressed. Maybe one can also be depressed if one is wealthy but doesn’t see why one should be so much wealthier than everyone else, even if one is doing excellent work. And relationship problems bring depression.

At the moment I am a bit depressed because I need to find a part-time job but am pessimistic and don’t want to look. I should be depressed! My doctor prescribed Zoloft for me some months ago but I stopped taking it because I wasn’t depressed. I could take it now but I think I can function well enough without it. All in all, nature seems to laugh at success or good fortune, and one may still be almost as uncertain and ambivalent as before.

Good idea from sunshinehigh! Maybe that is one good way to deal with it; it’s similar to getting more in touch with your community and your grounding.

In our culture even the poorest among us can, by and large, still assume food and shelter. We have a lot of “space” left in our lives where the fundamental constituents of Meaning are assumptions and even afterthoughts. We’ve pushed the meaning provided by Nature straight out of our lives with no solid replacement.

We can fill that space with ideas or other objects of desire, even other people, but that doesn’t do much if those don’t supply a sufficient, or even innate, sense of meaning. Consumer culture, a workaholic lifestyle, drugs, there’s plenty out there to distract from the sense of void, of meaninglessness, but unless that void is filled with something substantive, something integral to our particular psychological makeup, that leads to depression.

and I’m going on far too much at length for being at work…

Isn’t the empty feeling so we will go deeper with our chosen foundation?

Maybe! I guess the way I was thinking was that all these things can help you navigate life, but that ultimately stability comes from within. I have to admit though that’s not a very useful thing to say when you find yourself in the midst of depression

Maybe it’s just that we need several different things that we can use. So when one is letting us down we can lean on the other. That helped a bit during my darkest times. It’s good to have options.

I also think that in general (and this is probably obvious) depression is a sign that something in your life is amiss. I don’t think it’s usually just a chemical imbalance. It can be hard to know exactly what is amiss. And sometimes it might be something you can’t change. Then you’ve got the harder task of learning to accept what is amiss. It took Sophie and I a long time to dig down and figure out what things were amiss in each of our lives, but I think we’re addressing them now. We’ll see how we feel in another year or two

I am flattered when Zenzo tells me “it is ironic that you pronounce Zulu better than the people from my own country”. >>> This is interesting to me because you and Cindy scored in the upper 97% of the US for verbal and articulation. Guess the test scores were accurate!

I see that Zenzo (Linda, Terry and my pet name for Vincenzo Novaro) was pleased to be mentioned in the journal on the www that is what I had thought. I think people vary but the majority would feel like him.

Zenzo’s Poem sounds that of a truly involved Daddy close to the baby and very real…It is outstanding!

Isn’t the empty feeling so we will go deeper with our chosen foundation?