Please…Just Stop Talking….

“I don’t like to believe in depression.  I believe that if you work hard enough you can get yourself out of it.” 

This gem comes from Alexa Ray, the 24 year old daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley.  Ah it’s wonderful to be a kid and think you know everything!  It takes time and life experience to make you realize how little you really know.

 I recall a manicurist in Burlington who gave me the most uncomfortable mani-pedi of my life.  For some reason she started into her philosophy of life and health.  The morbidly obese young woman laid blame for cancer and other critical illnesses squarely on those who suffered. “They asked for it”, she said. “It’s easy to avoid.  Just live right and don’t sin.”   I sat there, my feet in a soapy bath and my hands in her hands, feeling pity for her in the time to come when someone close to her became ill.  And I considered telling the manager that she had an irritatingly opinionated whacko on her staff but instead I just didn’t return.

So you go ahead Alexa Ray with your recent half-hearted suicide attempt and your store-bought nose – she got rid of Dad’s and bought Mom’s – and tell people who are clinically depressed that they’re just not trying hard enough.  Kid, you’re just too dumb to realize how dumb you really are.