Category Archives: Quotes

Men and Depression

Newsweek has an excellent article on depression and men. The excerpts below actually apply to depression in general, and the articles are worth reading regardless of gender.

For decades, scientists believed the main cause of depression was low levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. Newer research, however, focuses on the nerve cells themselves and how the brain’s circuitry can be permanently damaged by hyperactive stress responses, brought on by genetic predisposition, prolonged exposure to stress or even a single traumatic event. “When the stress responses are stuck in the ‘on’ position, that has a negative effect on mood regulation overall,” says Dr. Michael C. Miller, editor of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. A depressed brain is not necessarily underproducing something, says Dr. Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health — it’s doing too much.

—Julie Scelfo, Men and Depression: Facing Darkness

In one recent study at Columbia University, researchers found that rates of anxiety disorders and depression were three times as high among the adult children of depressed parents as they were among people whose parents were not depressed. Adult children of depressed parents also reported about five times the rate of cardiovascular disease — a sign that emotional disorders affect more than mood.

—Barbara Kantrowitz, ‘I Never Knew What to Expect’

Shifting

There are big changes slowly emerging on the horizon, and in response I’ve been paring down obligations. One of those is a decision to “go on sabbatical” as a project leader with Hands On Bay Area and to release my involvement with a couple of projects. Perhaps my stint working for them last year burned me out, because I was so certain that I would want to remain involved in the projects I was passionate about. But my energy is turned inward of late, and I’m still helping my community as a reading tutor.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.

–Ellen Glasgow

On Anger

Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

–Aristotle

At Last!

Houston, we have Internet access at home! Whee!

I’ve been sick since yesterday with stomach problems. It’s an on-again-off-again thing. At the moment, Husband is securing an 8-foot bookcase in the office to the wall with earthquake straps. Tomorrow we’ll unpack boxes in there.

Some observations:

I made beef stock for soup. Nothing smells more savory to me than roasting the bones and some vegetables in the oven in preparation for making stock.

Now that I have easy access to the Internet, I can follow up all immediate curiosities. For example, I wondered recently about the origin of the name Oreo as I nibbled on the cookies. Well, one answer speculates:

While there is no written record as to the origin of the OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies name, there are several theories. Some say that OREO was chosen because it was a nice melodic combination of sounds and was easy to pronounce. Others feel it was patterned after the French word for gold, “or” , a color used on early package designs. It is even believed that the name comes from the Greek word for mountain, “oreo”, and that the name was chosen because the first test version was hill-shaped. Regardless of its origin, the name stuck and today OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are one of the most popular brands of cookies in America.

—Wade Lee

However, a Metroactive article states:

According to Nabisco historians, the Oreo was not named after the Greek word oreo, meaning “mountain.” Nabisco’s pride and joy was named by taking the “re” out of cream and squishing it, sandwich-style, between the two “o’s” from the word chocolate.

—David Templeton

I like the latter explanation the most!

I’ve been deeply immersed in the novel, Ahab’s Wife: Or, the Star-Gazer.

Our friends had their first baby, a son, on February 8th!! He’s healthy and adorable, and we are thrilled for them.

I’ve been following the news about Oswego, NY, coping with 7 feet of snow recently dumped on them. I attended SUNY Oswego for my bachelor’s degree, and it was truly a place for hardy souls. In a recent conversation with my mother, she mentioned she’d heard that part of the reason for the amount of snow is that some of the Great Lakes have not frozen over as usual; the weather system has captured moisture from the lakes and carried it to land, where it becomes “lake effect” snow. I lived in Syracuse for 31 years, and boy, did we know what that was like! Looks like people now have to figure out where to put additional snow predicted to fall.

Does the Fact I Find This Funny Mean I’m Cynical?

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

–John Adams

Still no Internet at home! It’s coming, I’m told. AT&T said we should have it by end of business on Friday. We’ll see. Meanwhile, they should put my name on the particular workstation I use at the library, since I’m camped out here so much.

How Else?

Creative people, take heart. Restrain your self-pity. You don’t have a choice. How else would you live? If you could conform, you already would have. Keep your eyes glistening and your intelligence white-hot (as Rumi advises). Nurture yourself with relations with like minded people, beware the impulse for self-medication, cultivate elders who have cut trail in front of you, mentor those coming behind you, and grow what the Mohawks call “seven thicknesses of skin” because you are going to need it. This is the way it has always been.

–Anonymous, from a letter to Cary Tennis at Salon

Thanks to Kate for pointing this out.

It Depends

Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have always known it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.

–Tom Robbins

dancers

Of That Other Place

Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.

–Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, 1977

Loving Family Dynamics

Angelina Jolie speaks about her motherly feelings toward her adopted and biological children.

I think I feel so much more for Madd and Zee because they’re survivors, they came through so much. Shiloh seemed so privileged from the moment she was born. I have less inclination to feel for her…I met my other kids when they were six months old, they came with a personality. A newborn really is this…Yes, a blob! But now she’s starting to have a personality…I’m conscious that I have to make sure I don’t ignore her needs, just because I think the others are more vulnerable.

I wonder how many years of therapy Shiloh will need? Let’s hope the Queen decides against having more biological children.