About this Episode
It’s safe to assume that we all suffer from bouts of depression at times. As Neil Diamond sang:
Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one.
Me and you are subject to
The blues now and then
"Song Sung Blue," Neil Diamond
And, while more often than not, most of us have been able to take Neil’s advice to “take the blues and make a song [and] sing them out again,” whether metaphorically or literally, some of us have suffered or are suffering through depression so deep and encompassing that song is unable to penetrate and the desire to even sing a song is, at best, like a drop of water on a hot skillet, and, at worst, a stomach turning, repulsive thought, and that is a scary and dangerous place to be. In those times, it’s especially vital that we are able to notice the signs in ourselves and others and then reach out for help or reach out to help, respectively. Because, in those times, we can lose the ability to lift ourselves up. We lose the ability to put a smile on our face. We lose the ability to have an attitude of gratitude. And so, we need to be lifted up, and we need to lift up. In the words of Townes Van Zandt:
If I needed you
Would you come to me?
Would you come to me?
And ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I would swim the seas
For to ease you pain
If I Needed You, Townes Van Zandt
In this episode, Jackie Pack and I discuss depression, situational and clinical (major depressive disorder) including what differentiates them. We discuss ways that we can help ourselves and each other as we pass through those days, weeks, months or years when we feel hopelessness covering us.
"He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" by Neil Diamond
"If I Needed You" by Townes Van Zandt
Dark Canopy
Hopelessness covers me:
Like a forest canopy
On a moonless night
It covers me.
I see no way or path
To deliver myself.
And the darkness:
It fills my eyes.
And they are unable to see
The torchlight
Of rescuers who may approach.
All is black and dead.
Every gleam is only a phantom.
And the only variations in light
Are darker shadows
Waiting to finish me off
For good.
I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].
My first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps, is availabe for purchase at
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