Knowledge Is Marvelous, But Wisdom Is Even

Never Once, During Any Of My Bouts Of Depression, Had I Been Inclined Or Able To Pick Up A Telephone And Ask A Friend For Help. It Wasn't In Me.

Anybody Who's Had To Contend With Mental Illness - Whether It's Depression, Bipolar Illness Or Severe Anxiety, Whatever - Actually Has A Fair Amount Of Resilience In The Sense That They've Had To Deal With Suffering Already, Personal Suffering.

I Remember Sitting In His Office A Hundred Times During Those Grim Months And Each Time Thinking, What On Earth Can He Say That Will Make Me Feel Better Or Keep Me Alive? Well, There Never Was Anything He Could Say, That's The Funny Thing. It Was All The Stupid, Desperately Optimistic, Condescending Things He Didn't Say That Kept Me Alive; All The Compassion And Wamrth I Felt From Him That Could Not Have Been Said; All The Intelligence, Competence, And Time He Put Into It; And His Granite Belief That Mine Was A Life Worth Living.

The Chinese Believe That Before You Can Conquer A Beast You First Must Make It Beautiful. In Some Strange Way, I Have Tried To Do That With Manic-depressive Illness. It Has Been A Fascinating, Albeit Deadly, Enemy And Companion; I Have Found It To Be Seductively Complicated, A Distillation Both Of What Is Finest In Our Natures, And Of What Is Most Dangerous.

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.