T H E D A R K N I G H T O F T H E S O U L
we all have some
but
S O M E
have an everlasting, eternal D A R K N I G H T
with no chance of dawn
and dusk being a far too long ago memory. . .
C A R R I E F I S H E R
. . .her autopsy reports were released this week
screaming that there was a deadly cocktail
of countless illicit and prescription drugs
in her system. . .
THE NEWS
as it always does with public figures,
began a new tidal wave of grief
and a fresh round of moralizing
on the wastefulness of addiction
and the perceived weakness of the poor victim,
which sadly is the stuff that keeps
TMZ and EXTRA and The National Enquirer in business. . .
If you’ve never suffered from a Mental Illness
you can’t begin to
K N O W
let alone imagine what it possible could be like
or f e e l
It would be like attempting to tell what it feels like to jump out of a plane
without ever having even been to an airport
let alone on a flight. . .
and yet we
P R E S U P P O S E
Carrie talked openly about her demons
She never hid them
She never ran from them
She never shied away from letting us see her scars
even if it would make us wince
even if we’d prefer that they would stay hidden. . .
Mental Illness
is still the only kind of illness
we make people feel guilty
for being afflicted . . .
By the end of this week
I will have conducted three funerals for a
24, 27 and 28 year old folks
who battled their mental illness the same way
that Carrie Fisher
they weren’t quite as famous
but they’re all quite as dead
It’s a war
without a promise of ending
or a long-sought cease fire
and worse. . .
we seem to
at the least
be handing out the ammunition
and most definitely offering
little or no
s a n c t u a r y
and then shake our heads in pity
for the unfortunate causalities . . .
W H A T T O D O ?
It’s a legitimate question
if you care enough
to ask it
and then
simply wait for an answer. . .
Every year,
according to Newsweek Magazine
about 42.5 million American adults or
18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States
suffers from some mental illness
enduring conditions such as
depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. . .
It would seem that this
above all would be the norm and not the opposite:
The War
(if there truly is one)
on Mental Illness
rests not on the Mentally Ill
but the overwhelming majority
choosing to be Caring Catalysts
for more than just every once in a while
or when it happens to not-very-often
is convenient. . .
A F T E R A L L :
Don’t pull the shade up
on the
D A R K N I G H T O F S O U L
tear it down
and L I G H T a path
that well might not have ever seen
even a flicker !
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