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@the-inkspiller, I understand something of where you’re at — I’m rather melancholic, and being around happy people for too long has a way of making me pessimistic just to provide some balance or something. And I know what it’s like to be cynical about politics, looking for someone to take advantage of their place where they can Do Something and make the world better. And of course they don’t. The world is a sad, mess, burnt, torn-up old place, and while we should try to preserve the parts of it worth preserving, we also know it’s not going to be peaceful and perfect until pretty close to the end of time. And even then it won’t be our doing.

I happen to think the world needs a lot more fiction written by Christians that isn’t Christian Fiction. Far too much of the Christian Fiction pretends the darkness isn’t as dark as it is, when the solution is to show the darkness honestly, because that makes the light’s triumph mean so much more. A hero needs a worthy antagonist, after all. And we see a similar attitude in a lot of churches, people smiling and pretending their struggles aren’t so bad, because they have a dim notion that the Christian life is one where you’re always smiling and happy even in pain. No, not happy. Joyful. There’s a difference. Joy has nothing to do with smiling. And it’s often mixed with sorrow. (Not every church tries to hide the reality of suffering, I know.) So people try to hide their own troubles, perhaps from a decent motivation to not whine and complain and make nuisances of themselves, but often it just makes them. . . fake, I guess. Christ wasn’t happy all the time, and he suffered, and he didn’t always hide it, and it didn’t often make sense to the people who saw him. The Deliverer of his people is dying. . . okay. . . that worked well, didn’t it. Only he didn’t stay dead. . . that made everything beforehand worth it. Don’t feel obligated to act cheerful and chipper! Lots of Christians have been depressed too. . . William Cowper, and I think Handel — Handel, of Handel’s Messiah, of “For Unto Us” and “Since by Man Came Death”, yes, him (and many more people we don’t hear of).

“He will have the last laugh, and we will laugh with him.” I’m going to recommend some Chesterton, if you don’t mind? Manalive and The Man Who Was Thursday. I know you’re awfully busy, but they’re worth the read — the former is about a man who knows he’s alive and expresses his gratitude rather unconventionally — shockingly — and the latter has a lot to do with the problem of evil, and nobody knows entirely what it means, but it’s good for a lot of ideas.

Anyway, I odn’t know if this is good for anything except to say you’re not alone?