'The Noonday Demon' Andrew Solomon 2001

'It was also in depression that I learned my own acreage, the full extent of my soul.'
 
'I have discovered what I would have to call a soul, a part of myself I could never have imagined until one day, seven years ago, when hell came to pay me a surprise visit. It's a precious discovery.'

 http://andrewsolomon.com/books/the-noonday-demon/

http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/06/24/reviews/010624.24oatest.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/may/06/booksonhealth.medicalscience

'The Consolations of Philosophy' by Alain De Botton

Climbing the Arête des Cosmiques, a photo by NomadicEntrepreneur on Flickr.

'Though the terrain of frustration may be vast ... at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

The collisions begin in earliest infancy, with the discovery that the sources of our satisfaction lie beyond our control and that the world does not reliably conform to our desires.

And yet, for Seneca, in so far as we can ever attain wisdom, it is by learning not to aggravate the world's obstinacy through our own responses, through spasms of rage, self-pity, anxiety, bitterness, self-righteousness and paranoia.


A single idea recurs throughout his work: that we best endure those frustrations which we have prepared ourselves for and are hurt most by those we least expected and cannot fathom. 

Philosophy must reconcile us to the true dimensions of reality, and so spare us, if not frustration itself, then at least its panoply of pernicious accompanying emotions.

Her task is to prepare for our wishes the softest landing possible on the adamantine wall of reality.'

http://www.alaindebotton.com/philosophy.asp 

'Are you somebody? The Life and Times of Nuala O'Faolain'

Singing, a photo by pam's pics- on Flickr.

Those who wish to sing always find a song
- Swedish proverb-

'... I said to Arnold ... "why is ensemble singing so beautiful? What makes it move us so much?" And he said; "People would be like that all the time, if they could." '


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/12/culture.obituaries