Massless

A few months back, for a variety of reasons, I began studying about depression and dysthymia. As part of this study, I picked up a book called "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression" by Andrew Solomon:

"Depression is a condition that is almost unimaginable to anyone who has not known it. ... People around depressives expect them to get themselves together: our society has little room in it for moping. Spouses, parents, children, and friends are all subject to being brought down themselves, and they do not want to be close to measureless pain."

It's made an amazing impression on me. I recently heard on NPR that it won the 2001 National Book Award. Which seems well-deserved to my non-literate eye. I still ponder over the following:

"There are few conditions at once as undertreated and as overtreated as depression."

"[It] relies heavily on a paralyzing sense of imminence. ... Among other things, you feel you are about to die. The dying would not be so bad, but the living at the brink of dying, the not-quite-over-the-geographical-edge condition, is horrible."

"A depressive may have better judgment than a healthy person. Studies have shown that depressed and non-depressed people are equally good at answering abstract questions. When asked, however, about their control over an event, nondepressed people invariably believe themselves to have more control than they really have, and depressed people give an accurate assessment."

"We can never escape from choice itself. One's self lies in the choosing, every choice, every day. I am the one who chooses to take my medication twice a day. I am the one who chooses to talk to my father. I am the one who chooses to call my brother, and the one who chooses to own a dog, and the one who chooses to get out of bed (or not) when the alarm goes off, and the one who is also sometimes cruel and sometimes self-involved and often forgetful."

We can't escape from choice itself...so I choose...to release new free software.
(This is why I'm not allowed to make press releases at work :)

I've followed through on my promise to deliver a referrers script.