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WEEKLY MIDDLE-PAUSE PROMPT: DEALING WITH DEPRESSION
When I’m Feeling Down
I recite this poem to myself
Red is for sweet reason
Yellow is for yearning
Blue is for brave and bright
I think things through
I feel a hunger for happiness
I am moving forward
I think. I feel. Therefore I am.
Every time when I get to the “moving forward” part of this poem, I imagine myself 20 years younger, striding in bright gold sunshine along a gravel path next to woods full of trees and glowing wildflowers — scarlet flax, red corn poppies, and — oddly — hibiscus, which I haven’t seen since I was 5 on my daily walks with my Gramma. There’s a river just beyond the field, clear cadet blue.
When I get to “I think,” I think about what René Descartes, the philosopher, would think of my adding “sentio” to his famous “cogito, ergo sum”: I think, I feel, therefore I am.
You remember Descartes, don’t you? No? Well, he’s that philosopher who in the 17th century set out to explore the true nature of humankind. According to Descartes, who wrote it all down in Meditations on First Philosophy, a person can be certain of their own existence and its true nature…