Somehow, Like So Many People

Mother, Who Has An Absolute Belief That It Is Not The Cards That One Is Dealt In Life, It Is How One Plays Them, Is, By Far, The Highest Card I Was Dealt.

Children Need The Freedom And Time To Play. Play Is Not A Luxury; The Time Spent Engaged In It Is Not Time That Could Be Better Spent In More Formal Educational Pursuits. Play Is A Necessity.

The Intensity, Glory, And Absolute Assuredness If My Mind's Flight Made It Very Difficult For Me To Believe Once I Was Better, That The Illness Was One I Should Willingly Give Up....moods Are Such An Essential Part Of The Substance Of Life, Of One's Notion Of Oneself, That Even Psychotic Extremes In Mood And Behavior Somehow Can Be Seen As Temporary, Even Understandable Reactions To What Life Has Dealt....even Though The Depressions That Inevitably Followed Nearly Cost Me My Life.

Suicide Is A Particularly Awful Way To Die: The Mental Suffering Leading Up To It Is Usually Prolonged, Intense And Unpalliated. There Is No Morphine Equivalent To Ease The Acute Pain, And Death, Not Uncommonly, Is Violent And Grisly. The Suffering Of A Suicidal Is Private And Inexpressible, Leaving Family Members, Friends And Colleagues To Deal With An Almost Unfathomable Kind Of Loss, As Well As Guilt. Suicide Carries In Its Aftermath A Level Of Confusion And Devastation That Is, For The Most Part, Beyond Description.

I Decided Early In Graduate School That I Needed To Do Something About My Moods. It Quickly Came Down To A Choice Between Seeing A Psychiatrist Or Buying A Horse. Since Almost Everyone I Knew Was Seeing A Psychiatrist, And Since I Had An Absolute Belief That I Should Be Able To Handle My Own Problems, I Naturally Bought A Horse.