Lynn on the Price is right

Lynn on the Price is right
Originally uploaded by Mike Dec.

Top three heads are Lynn, Philip, and Lino.

Depression and the Soul

Thanks to Podcasting, I was able to listen to a program on Speaking of Faith, a public radio segment linking depression to the soul. They had the author of the Noonday Demon, a book that still sits on my night stand as I labor though it. It's a part memoir, part information book on the author's struggle with debilitating depression. There were also a Buddhist and a Quaker who gave insights on what their relationship is to their illness (also called darkening of the soul). Being of the logical and pragmatic mindset, it's easy for me to look upon my illness as a clinical and medical affliction, but that does not do justice to the despair and teeth-gnashing I experience when I'm in the throes of it. They call it "exhausting" which best describes the feeling more than sadness, and also as "like living life in a minor key", which in turn shows how pervasive and encompassing it is to the daily tune in my head. The camaraderie I feel listening to other people who suffer from it is encouraging, as often, I feel very much alone as people around me go on with their lives unscathed. I didn't realize that so much poetry and written works of arts arise from people trying to make sense of this darkening of the soul (Rilke comes to mind). A particularly striking image was that depression is the flame that fires up the clay after it's been kneaded end beaten up, turning it into the figure that emerges after that. Depression has given me to ability empathize with other people's pain and suffering, but that thought is of poor consolation when I am in the process of being engulfed.

When Alan shows me how, this is where the link to Speaking of Faith will be located.

South Fullerton

Walking Mugsy around town offers views such as this if one only looks up. Montclair's skyline may not be grand but I've always had a thing for old buildings