I apologize to all Beyond Blue readers who took offense to my post, “40 Ways to Keep Your Lover.” I should have provided a qualifier that I was merely having fun with Paul Simon’s idea of linking directives to a list of female names. Some of them are important – laughing and praying—but I was sort of kidding about the casserole and all-day NFL.
Coming up next week, per the suggestion of our friend Larry Parker, I’ll be talking about divorce and depression: when, despite trying all sorts of things, a couple splits. And it is for the good.
And to reader Nillawafer, I am sincerely sorry for the loss of your husband. I will keep you in my prayers. I certainly was not trying to make depressed widows more depressed. On the contrary, I was trying to get the depressive to “break her face” (as I said in my Date Night video blog), to laugh, as I made light of a gospel reading that I truly didn’t understand. I realize that my attempts at wit can often offend, but unlike other aspects of Beyond Blue–interviews, videos, and blog topics that I’m able to revise according to reader input–my humor is staying as it is. Because it is a such an effective depression buster for me, and it’s a defense mechanism that has almost no side effects (sore stomach, that’s all). However, there are many reputable and resourceful blogs—I subscribe to a dozen myself–that don’t use humor, and therefore might not be at as risky to read if my attempts at comedy bring you down. I can guide you to those if you’d like.