APRIL 29
When you find yourself overpowered by melancholy, the
best way is to go out and do something kind to somebody.
—JOHN KEBLEWhen our grief is fresh and acute, our own suffering prob-
ably is all we can attend to.
But melancholy is often a long-term thing, a kind of low-
key sadness. It is almost worse than fresh grief because its
onset is back there somewhere—we can hardly remember
when we didn’t feel this way. And furthermore, we see no
end in sight.
If we are feeling serious depression, we’re more likely to
go for help. But melancholy? Well, maybe we can pull
ourselves out of it. It’s worth a try. And one of the best at-
tempts is to do something for someone else—a phone call
to a lonely person, some flowers or homemade bread to a
shut-in, an offer to read in the library’s program for the
visually impaired. It will take us out of ourselves for a bit.
And the interaction with another will restore some of our
fallen energy.
I’ll be on the lookout for something I can do for others when mel-
ancholy closes in around me.