Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 January 2006 14:53:36
I was reading a self-help book.
You know the sort - here's how to avoid the problems, and here's what to do if you have problems.
It was a good one too, written by someone I know and respect. But unfortunately, as I read it, it just became clear to me that I'm doing almost everything wrong. And when I actually looked at the "and here's what to do if you have problems" advice with the careful scrutiny of someone who's actually about to put it into practice, it just didn't seem plausible. I was left with the feeling of someone who's found themselves on the wrong side of a fast-flowing river, with only a scraggy old rope bridge to use to cross over. Although I want to be on the other side, I just don't trust that rope to hold me and get me over.
I suppose if I trust the writer (and I think I do), then the point is that that bridge is all there is; I shouldn't be on this side and if I've been so stupid as to land myself here, then I can't expect an easy way out. Unfortunately most of me is inclined to view that as confirmation that I'm going to be staying where I am, on the wrong side of the river.
So the self-help book helped me hugely. It helped me to get hugely depressed.