This Is How You Write A Column

(Late one night in a bar in Algiers. Singing is heard through the windows.)
OOOOOOHHHHHH!
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table

David Hume could out consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed

[pic of singing bruces]

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill

Plato they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And René Descartes was a drunken fart
"I drink, therefore I am"

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker
But a bugger when he's pissed

 

All of the more reason why no one should doubt or question someone who is battling depression (fuck you Tom Cruise). It takes something monumental like Katrina, or something small, to trigger a downslide for anyone. For Rose, it saved him. For others, sadly, they never recover, if they take their own life.

This is something that several of us who have suffered or continue to deal with depression go through. For Chris to write this, I hope somewhere, maybe in New Orleans, or where this story can be read, it will save someone's life by finally getting help. For every Sylvia Plath, there is a Bill Styron. For every Kyle Ambogsi, Chris Rose is a living example of depression.

I hope that for all of the past debating of mental health with respects to Mr. Cruise, if you think or feel that something is missing in your life and if you don't see your life moving on to the next day, get help now. Not tomorrow or after that dayshift on the metro beat. Get it now. For all of us and for you. We want to read each other's posts everyday here, not think about "what if."

This is just me talking, but we do spend too much time delving into what's bad everyday. It's part of the job for most of you, as journalists, as well as average peons like me who have other occupations. As a sidenote, what do all of you do to get away and enjoy your time away from the desk and the beat? Read? Play with the kids? Take the significant other to dinner? What do we do to revitalize what our lives and go on each day?

 

Fenian, you need to flag this thread as a must-read, it's getting buried already.

 

PLEASE TELL ME HOW!

 

Here's my contribution to keeping it up top.

 

This piece is really something. Can't stop thinking about it.

 

In the spirit of continued bumping, God bless Chris Rose!!!!!

 

Amen.
(Bumping AND postpadding -- an SportsJournalists.com twofer!)

 

Bump and post-pad for F_B. I can't get enough reading this again.

 

I had never read Chris Rose until I clicked on this thread. He's now bookmarked ... and I'll keep this thread at the top for another few minutes. Wonderful writing and a very relevant and serious topic.

 

Hey, Orange Hat, did you know Chris Rose is from Cleveland? Okay, not this Chris Rose, the Chris Rose from Fox, but still.

bump

 

This thread needs to go back on the front page.