According to the Seattle Times FYI Guy, a new survey from the U.S. Census Bureau found that, in November, just about half of Seattle-area adults were dealing with feelings of depression.” So, check out the friend you’re with; if they look happy, chances are, you’re feeling blue.
And, of course, for good reason.
Honestly, if you’re not depressed these days, you’re not paying attention.
The pandemic, rampant unemployment, homelessness, climate change, a lame duck Presidential administration that’s intent on rolling back every environmental protection it can and executing every brain-damaged mentally-ill prisoner on Federal death row before its term finally runs out on January 20th (at last!), and of course, the darkness which descends upon the Pacific Northwest this time of year—any right-thinking (or even wrong-thinking) remotely-sensitive human being should be feeling down given everything that’s going on or not going on in the world and one’s own life.
But somehow, for a few hours at least, those feelings of depression can be mitigated.
All it takes is a bicycle, a handful of masked-up and socially-distancing friends, a 12-pack of beer, a brand-new waterside fire pit, and around one and half Farmer Ito brand cannabis Christmas cookies, and the season’s gloom transforms into an authentic occasion for joy, if perhaps not, as the song goes, “to the world,” but, in any case, to this little piece of it, in the upper-left hand corner of the nation on just one evening—the final darkening one of the year, if you want to look on the bright side.
The word “enjoyment,” I’m told by the internet, comes from the Old French enjoir "to give joy, rejoice, take delight in;” it suggests an active approach, a giving and a taking; to enjoy something means you’re making other people happy and drawing from their happiness for yourself.
Sounds about right.
These days, enjoyment is hard to come by; so, may as well take it (and give it) where you can.
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