I get it. You're down. Got the blues. Melancholy--I love that one. I know what the shrink says. You're depressed. I get it. It's near the Holidays and your spirit, both holiday and the spirit that lives within you, is lacking. If you hear one more freaking Christmas song, or commercial, or if one more happy son of a gun wishes you Season's Greetings you are going to go off.
Really, I get it.
I've been there. Just last week I spent two days sacked out in bed. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I get it. It happens to all of us.
Let me tell you a story. For those of you who follow my other blog, you know I got stories.
My mother's second husband, a great guy in my memory, was a drunk driver. He actually drove my mother's pink 50s T-Bird through a gas station. I mean through the gas station. Through the walls, through the garage, through the gas station. The orderlies in the hospital actually remembered my stepfather he
came into the emergency room so often. Now back in the 50s, drunk driving wasn't looked at with the scorn it is today. Today, this fellow, my step-father, would have been in prison. But these were different times. And the authorities and friends and family just looked the other way.
But my step-father managed to wreck the family car during the Christmas season on several occasions. He would come home, all apologies and sweet, after being patched up at the hospital. Once he slid on his back across the road in Henderson, Nevada. Another time he drove our old Pontiac over a 15-foot embankment in Cardiff, California. Usually, when he wrecked the car, he was so out of it, he could have been a rag doll. He never suffered any life-threatening injuries.
Christmas became sort of a let-down for me. After each Christmas, into my adulthood, I had this old, after-Christmas let down. Okay, so I finally outgrew it. Kids, and grand kids, and great Christmas seasons turned it around for me. But if this season has got you down, I get it. You're probably thinking I should keep it to myself. What's this got to do with me anyway?
Well, this is the purpose of this blog. Interaction. Depression does not have to stop you. Okay, it may slow you down at times, but it doesn't have to stop you.
Take JR Martinez--Actor.
Dancing with the Stars Champ.
Casualty of War.
He could have given up. He was young when he was badly burned in Iraq from the explosion of a roadside bomb. Don't care that he can dance? He decided to become an actor. He could have crawled into bed, never got up, or blown his brains out, and a lot of folks wouldn't have blamed him. But he didn't.
Maybe JR Martinez will inspire just one person to excel despite bad circumstances. Many the person he inspires will inspire one more person--and so on and so on.
There's millions of people past and present who excel despite depression. One of my heroes is Winston Churchill. There's a guy who suffered some black moods. Yeah, call it depression. All he did was write more than a dozen books, paint quite well, run a country of 40 million, and, oh, yeah, win the war against Hitler.Those of us who hurt don't have to give up. We need to inspire each other.
That's what I want to do here. If you have an inspirational story about people who have overcome depression to excel, share it here with your comments.
It doesn't have to be another lousy holiday season for you. It is not written in stone.
Inspire others.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.
Anon.
