You ever notice how people are always trying to talk you out of sadness? I have known many well intentioned people who have attempted to do this to me. They’ll say, “Aw, it’s not so bad,” or “It could be worse, you know. . . .” or “Yes, but, just look at all you’ve got!!!”

It is difficult to hear your friend talk about their sadness because you don’t want your friend to feel sad. It is maybe also a natural inclination for people to want to absolve their friend’s sadness with optimism.

You get sad enough and it saturates every level of your brain until the whole thing is compromised, and then you’re left with a rotted-out pitch-black nightmarebrain where no good thing grows! At that point you can’t help but let all internal and external stimuli pass through that dark barrier you have created for yourself in the secret places in your mind. Everything is touched by it!!

And while I think it’s intoxicating to get way the hell down there, and stay the hell down there, and surround yourself with people who won’t disagree with you, and so on, it is truly not my inclination to talk someone out of their own sadness. Which is not to say I urge someone to continue their descent into total annihilation. But, hell, let them be sad if they feel sad. There ain’t nothin nobody can say to roll back someone else’s own dark tide. Y’all know that, right?

It’s just something I’ve noticed is all. I don’t have a whole lot going for me, but I have been told that I am The Guy To Go To if you feel bad and and just wanna be around someone who won’t try to sell you a vacuum cleaner, if you know what I mean. Yeah.