Maybe because it's Sunday morning, and maybe because I'm a little hung over, but I'm feeling a little philosophical. I struggle with depression in the wintertime, but through hard work it has been getting better over the past few years. It occurs to me that not all depression can be lifted by the will of the one (some people need medicine), but much of it can. There is just so much in life to get a kick out of, so many little beautiful details, it's a shame not to appreciate what we can.
For example, on Friday, I met a wonderful woman named *Angela.* She was very vivacious, larger than life, able to hold a mariachi band in the palm of her hand. It's hard to explain why she was so captivating (charisma?). But in any case it was obvious that she didn't let the grass grow under her feet. In fact, she just went to Columbia to get some "cheap" plastic surgery - new hooters and a new nose. She was totally open about this, and in fact told many funny and entertaining stories about her experience. How can one be depressed when there is someone out in the world like this?!
I also started reading "The Brief History of the Dead," a fiction book by Kevin Brockmeier. As of page 9, it's officially amazing. The characters in the book are people that have died and passed on to a version of the afterlife, like this world but different. The characters all talk about how they died, and the things they miss about living. One guy, a sixteen year old from Wisconsin, says,
'"Mostly I just miss my girlfriend."
Her name was Tracey Tipton, and she did this thing with his earlobes and the notched edge of her front teeth that made his entire body go taut and buzz like a guitar string. He had never given his earlobes a second thought until the day she took them between her lips, but now that he was dead he thought of nothing else. Who would have figured?'
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