She’s back! She’s back! After a year hiatus, one of my favorite bloggers has returned to the blogosphere after taking some time to deal with the horrible reality that is depression.
If you have never read any of Allie Brosh’s posts on Hyperbole and Half, you might take this new post as kinda, for lack of a better description, weird and depressing. So if you are new to the wonder that is Hyperbole and Half, go read this post about her dog and/or this one about her first trip to Texas. If you still haven’t chuckled or found any of it minutely funny then don’t read her new post, it will be a waste of your time. In fact, you should probably stop reading my blog too, cause my sarcasm is much more subtle than hers and I have probably already offend you.
But, if you are one of the many who are still with me, do me a favor. If you are suffering from depression or know someone that is suffering from depression, read it. You will be delighted that someone has finally been able to put into words/hysterical cartoons all the feelings and situations you could not explain. Why you wore that hoodie with spaghetti stains around for 3 months without a care, or somehow your ass stopped functioning as a seating device and your posture was permanent imitation Nickelodeon Gak.
Please believe me when I say this is not my attempt at making light of a serious mental condition. I would be the LAST to do so. Depression is real and painful, but REALLY hard to explain to those who do not have it or have never experienced it first hand.
I would like to congratulate Mrs. Brosh on this amazing post as I am sure it will help many people out there begin to understand, or at least become a little more empathetic to someone going through the fight with depression. You are a brave and courageous soul for putting it out there.
Welcome back to the interwebs Hyperbole and Half -we are thrilled to have you back!!
I love discovering inspiring work and I usually find nothing more inspiring than the ability to shed light and perspective on the mundane. In this inspiring commencement speech by the late author, David Foster Wallace, we are challenged to approach the mundane routine of day to day life differently. Interestingly, Wallace chooses to make his commencement speech about a side of adult life that no one really talks about, the dreaded and all to familiar Routine.
Why are we never warned about this? We are tested and quizzed on history, psychology and the life cycle of the human cell. We are told to memorize elements from the periodic table and to internalize the brilliant works of great authors before us, but no one told us how to approach the Routine, or even that it existed.
This Routine, this day to day thing that just happens. It’s not until you are standing in line at the grocery store at 8:00 PM, still in your work clothes, starving and longing for nothing but to take your dress shoes off, that you realize your college education, those four long years, had nothing to do with education at all. I think Wallace says it best. ” The Truth is, the real value of a real education has (almost) nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness. Awareness to what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain site around us all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over…”
I’m struggling to find an outlet for my words. A place that I can just lay it all out there and when completed, send it out into the universe for whoever may stumble upon it at 3 in the morning while struggling from insomnia. For years I have kept a daily journal of my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I documented vacations or really bad first dates. But it’s that last part that I am missing. The sending of my words out into the interwebs in hopes that someone else will read them, relate and not feel so alone in this world. It’s a blogger’s love story.
So why the struggle? Big brother, of course! What if my future employer doesn’t
like that I was sick with a bad illness 5 years ago or that I am friends on Facebook with a raised Jewish now atheist scientist who writes stories about that afterlife. An afterlife that is depicted in no way like the Heaven that is spoken of in the Bible(I heart you Dr. Eagleman)? What if they don’t like the fact that I can be found on Youtube participating in a Karaoke contest, which I totally won, or that I am a known volunteer and supporter of the No Kill Animal movement in Houston?
What if they think it’s weird that I see color when I listen to music or the fact that I worked for Govenor Rick Perry?…best part of that job was still getting to ride the secret elevator in the Capitol building with Ted Nugent and the secret service guys. See!!! It’s stories like that that I want to tell with no fear and no judgement, but there is this damn voice inside of me that piped up every time I sit at the keyboard. “Now, now…use disgretion”. Yes, she’s condesending and yes, she sounds like Lois from Family Guy. Don’t ask me why.
I promise I have not given up on this January Cure program, I am just a little behind schedule. I have spent the last week going to bed pretty early because I am fighting a bout of bronchitis. The cough has been keeping me up pretty late at night, hence the need to sleep when I get home from work from just utter exhaustion.
I have accomplished some things though! Like, I am fully moved out of my old apartment and I sold my old table and chairs that will not fit in my new dining room. I hung a few things, purchased a TV stand, and even a new rug.
My outbox is getting full of things that I need to either give away to good will, sell on ebay or give back too the people I borrowed them from.
So while I might be a little off task and/or behind, I am still making progress…slowly but surely.
Hope everyone else is doing well on their January Cure journey.
