Letters to the Editor
jaketwice
Published Letters: 40 Editor's Choice: 3
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The Advice Was Good Medicine, Depression or Not
[Read the article: Help! I'm committing professional suicide!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would have been very simple for Cary to call the LW out on being depressed. However, I appreciate that Cary, in appreciation of the fact that many busy people with real commitments can't afford to be depressed, actually gave the LW some real advice he can really use.
It's so easy to go on and on about "professional help" and "therapy." But those things are not solutions, they are just more of talking about the problem.
Very often, what men need in order to get out of depression is an action plan. Cary gave the letter writer a plan that he could conceivably execute. Cary nailed it.
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A Touch of Care
[Read the article: I need a new dream]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Letter today is very carefully written. Every word is written to fit into every sentence, which fits into every paragraphs, which all combined to render really any response ineffective. No offense Cary.
What an irony it is that those who are in the best position to have children: the planners, the careful, run out of time.
I still have time, and I am not an especially good planner. Maybe that means I don't have much to say.
I can say for myself that my step-father is a wonderful person. I model myself after him in every way (even in ways I wish I did not!) because he has always been so careful and reasoned with me, and in his life. I have a deep and abiding respect for him.
It is true that we may live on, when we die, through our genetic children. However, I really believe that we live on in a greater way by touching those close to us, by impregnating (if you'll forgive the word) others with a spirit which is in turn passed on to others around us.
Just so, I am a child of my step-father's soul. And my children, the children of my soul, however they may come to be my children, will come to also be in some way the children of my step-father's soul; his soul will be magnified for the way he has loved me, and been so respectable an example in my life, by the way I will love them, and be a respectable example in their lives.
It is funny that you do not want to adopt, because to me, that is about the most noble and wonderful thing a person can do. It is certainly something I hope to do in my life.
Onward.
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Liberal Sissies
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look - be a liberal, or be a sissy, but don't be both.
If you're a liberal, then uproot the trees, and toss them at your neighbor.
If you're a sissy, don't be a liberal. We have too many sissies already.
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Babies baby babies
[Read the article: I want a baby so badly it scares me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Once you have a baby, you can't put it back!
There are good times in your life to have a baby, and not so good times. Studies show that un-married women have a harder time finding a good partner when with baby than without.
Maybe if you focused on finding the right man to marry, you would be better off...
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Repeat Yourself Much?
[Read the article: I'm 21 and addicted to pot -- but I'm doing just great!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing, with stoners is that they repeat themselves. Stoners repeat themselves. Mostly, they repeat themselves because when you're stoned, studies show (google it yourself) you're not as able to turn your short term memories into long term memories.
So I guess you're high functioning... The thing is that this is your last year of college: don't you want to have some memories?
When I was a heavy pot smoker (dude, gravity bong) I couldn't remember where I'd put anything: my house-keys, my homework, my marbles.
Do yourself a favor and graduate the pot when you graduate college. Life is too good not to remember.
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Find a Hero
[Read the article: I'm a college student with no natural social skills]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are some people out there who are extroverts - people totally unafraid of how they are perceived, and the consequences of their being perceived. Sometimes those people have that odd charisma that draws other people around them - I call those people heroes. Find yourself a hero, and listen as the people she or he draws talk about her, or about him.
Basically, you need to talk some smack to find out what the norms are. Whatever you decide they are doesn't matter too much - it's just the coming up with a schema.
Find a chief, find a tribe, talk some smack. You might try getting a job at a cafe. There is some great smack talked amongst cafe staff.
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Start a Blog
[Read the article: How can I get a writing job?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Post consistently. Once you get going, tell your friends. I personally wait with bated breath for Sundays and "I Like to Watch."
The world needs more good writing!
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Too Mature!
[Read the article: Desperately unhappy in the top Ivy League school]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW, my friend, you are unpopular.
And because you are unpopular, you are depressed; because you are depressed, you cannot work. And because you are not working, you are even MORE depressed. Your letter is not about academics, it is about your roommate.
Since it all stems back to not being popular, you might ask, why are you unpopular?
Judging from the writing in your letter, I would say it is because you are 45 years old.
So do this: tell yourself you are not going to go to any school next year - and take a year off. Get to know young people, and learn how to interact with them. Meanwhile, the prospect of doing whatever it is next year will give you enough hope to ward off those bitches in your dorm such that you can finish the semester.
Look: if you take a year off before your sophomore year, you will be interacting with those who had been freshmen when you weren't there. You'll thus come in as a relatively unknown quantity. It's win-win. You get some time off to learn how to act the appropriate age; when you come back, you get a whole new crowd to interact with.
But stay away from California - 18 year old 45 year olds aren't going to get any younger going back where they came from.
You have a whole big life.