MENTAL HEALTH / DEPRESSION
The Unbearable Heaviness of Being
A Conversation With Depression
“The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man’s body.The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I sit, weighed down by my own breath. By a broken spirit.
I’ve been here before. “Hello, old friend. How are ya doin’ today?”
It smirks back at me and teases me with the slight intake of air one takes before a response then stops; it isn’t going to answer.
I pause and look down, sipping on my alcohol-free wine. Holding the glass like a familiar old crutch that has no bearing on getting me from here to there — or wherever.
