Anyone want to talk?
CharlasDepression and Anxiety: Books That Help
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2AsYouKnow_Bob
Not a book, but just a quote (so I won't be touchstoning it)...
Avram Davidson's Adventures in Unhistory has just been brought back into print.
In the introduction, Peter S. Beagle is comparing two of his favorite writers, T.H.White and Avram Davidson, and quotes with approval that both were
subscribers to Merlin's dictum, "The only cure for being sad is to learn something" .
In my life, I find that advice often works for me: just keeping busy - learning something, or making something - and I don't have time to brood. (Of course, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)...).
Avram Davidson's Adventures in Unhistory has just been brought back into print.
In the introduction, Peter S. Beagle is comparing two of his favorite writers, T.H.White and Avram Davidson, and quotes with approval that both were
subscribers to Merlin's dictum, "The only cure for being sad is to learn something" .
In my life, I find that advice often works for me: just keeping busy - learning something, or making something - and I don't have time to brood. (Of course, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)...).
3AsYouKnow_Bob
Editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden has blogged an 1820 letter from Sydney Smith to Lady Georgiana Morpeth
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007688.html#007688
Dear Lady Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have done—so I feel for you.
1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80.
3rd. Amusing books.
4th. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th. Be as busy as you can.
6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
l0th. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.
13th. Do good, and endeavor to please everybody of every degree.
14th. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th. Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th. Keep good blazing fires.
19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th. Believe me, dear Lady Georgiana,
Very truly yours, Sydney Smith
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007688.html#007688
Dear Lady Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have done—so I feel for you.
1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80.
3rd. Amusing books.
4th. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th. Be as busy as you can.
6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
l0th. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.
13th. Do good, and endeavor to please everybody of every degree.
14th. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th. Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th. Keep good blazing fires.
19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th. Believe me, dear Lady Georgiana,
Very truly yours, Sydney Smith
4keylawk
What courage! I was late in coming to Depression -- some combination of a perfect childhood raised in the Jungles of Bolivia followed by a Conquest of America as a teenager who was faster, smarter, healthier, and better-looking than my peers. Now midway in my life returning "per una selva oscura" it hits me hard that I am slower, duller, sicklier, and uglier than my peers, and my self-realizations are layers of delusions. I feel the sting of failure and defeat, compounded by twisted infamy and false accusations, the successes of 'false lights'. And then I walk...yes, no, I crawl, crazed and weeping...into the Library. Ah! The effect is rapid, inexplicable and transformational For me, it works just to touch upon the messages found in these bottles of fine succor. Even the books written by beasts, priests, cheats, and incompetents, somehow uplift me! Courage.
5thomas.merton
I just love that user name: "hobbitprincess"!!! We here in the Thomas Merton household are all fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, my son was just reading his copy of The Hobbit for the second time, as he was falling asleep. (When he was quite young, one of our activities together was for him on my lap as I read him the Hobbit!
Tolkien's books have certainly helped me to battle effectively with depression. The wonderful moral that even "little people" can have a tremendous impact on the world is a message I find very encouraging.
My favorite thing about the LOTR triology is that Tolkien himself said that the true hero of the story is Samwise--the one with the least in terms of talents or magic, but made up for it in love and determination.
pseudo Thomas Merton
Tolkien's books have certainly helped me to battle effectively with depression. The wonderful moral that even "little people" can have a tremendous impact on the world is a message I find very encouraging.
My favorite thing about the LOTR triology is that Tolkien himself said that the true hero of the story is Samwise--the one with the least in terms of talents or magic, but made up for it in love and determination.
pseudo Thomas Merton
6barney67
I visited the monastery in KY, Gethsemane I think it was, where Merton had stayed for a while. At the time I'd been reading several of Merton's books.
I talked to a monk there who suggested I come for a retreat, but I never did.
I asked him what kind of person would join a monastery. He said, "Weird," and laughed.
I talked to a monk there who suggested I come for a retreat, but I never did.
I asked him what kind of person would join a monastery. He said, "Weird," and laughed.
7thomas.merton
I was able to go on a week long retreat at Gethsemani Abbey, and it was one of the most pleasant and rewarding experiences of my entire life. I would do it every year, but the burdens and responsibilities of life do not allow me the luxury of this practice.
But you are correct: Thomas Merton lived and wrote at Gethsemani, and is buried there. But to the monks, he's better known as "Father Louie" or "Father Louis".
It's true, you do have to be "weird" to want to be a monk, which is probably why I found it to be such a wonderful experience!
I could have stayed there for ever.
But you are correct: Thomas Merton lived and wrote at Gethsemani, and is buried there. But to the monks, he's better known as "Father Louie" or "Father Louis".
It's true, you do have to be "weird" to want to be a monk, which is probably why I found it to be such a wonderful experience!
I could have stayed there for ever.
