Dave Andrews @ Greenbelt 2006 (Talk 7)

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 06 June 2012 13:15:09

Ok, sometimes you just have to laugh when you hear a talk not because it is funny but because it is so bloody apt for where you are. Today as I listened to Dave Andrews talk about activist depression I was laughing for that reason. First off I have had reactive depression in the past- which the depths of these pages talk about somewhere- and sometimes I still go on a bit of a downer , but I recognise that I don't suffer the same sort of depression that some of my friends suffer from and most times my slight chemical imbalances aren't depression as such. This distinction is made before we start because I think there are some who may listen to Dave Andrews Greenbelt 2006 talk Practising Hope in Despair and feel the need to say wtf? Mental health issues are complicated but as Andrews makes clear in the introduction to the talk they are not unusual. In the western world "depression" or those conditions linked to it are huge.

I co-incidently came to this talk after spending part of the Jubilee weekend reading Denise Welch's autobiography Pulling Myself Together which outlines her struggles with depression and the ways in which she has operated during her illness. This book is actually useful read alongside beside this talk because emphasises how the types of depression differ and how responses to them differ too. It's also useful for Christians to be reminded of how real life is a hell of a lot more complicated than our nice little boxes religious boxes sometimes suggest as well. Anyway back to Andrew's talk - his is based around a specific type of depression activists sometimes suffer from which is linked to overwhelming feelings of hopelessness.

Listening to the talk as he talked of that moment you get to feeling numb as you suddenly realise that you "wonder what's the point?"/ "what difference can it possibly make?" I could identify. I've seen and heard it with political activists and I've heard Christian ministers talk about a similar thing in terms of operating and trying to keep the church going in the face of secularisation - Darren Blaney did a really good piece for the Baptist Times a few years back which used the analogy of a lower league football manager who kept trying to avoid relegation each season (unfortunately couldn't locate to link to). Within the story Andrews gave in his talk relating to how this type of depression operates he was relating to an extreme experience of this. However, there was a clear link made to the way that feeling often comes when you look at the compromises and sacrifices you have made in order to do something but the level of over whelming need which still exists that those in more moderate situations can probably relate to.

Within the talk he spoke about the need to be like Paul and practice hope in the mist of hopelessness realising that duty and obligation cannot sustain us. He talked about the need to focus on joy within the mist of sorrow - allowing ourselves to feel the pain but to try and keep our focus on the positive aspects of what was going on. He didn't make light of this and acknowledged that it can be really hard to do this. He said we need to look for where God is at work and recognise/ celebrate and collaborate with that being "part of God's global conspiracy of the spirit to subvert the dominant paradigm of society". He made the point anger is necessary but again it cannot sustain us. We need he concluded within the question and answer section to allow ourselves to move from "intellectual constructs" to "emotional constructs".

So how does he reckon you do this hard thing. Well, he made the point of seeing the good in stuff whilst recognising the limitations and focusing on the small scale local around us as well as the global.

My reaction to all this is that it is lovely on one level.....but it's hippy trippy Christian idealism stuff on another level. That said if I have a choice between being overwhelmed by the apparent hopelessness of stuff going on at the moment or trying to think and feel differently I'm sure as hell going to go for the second. On that basis this is the exact talk I needed to hear at the moment - in fact I would say discovering the content of this talk today is somewhat of an answer to prayer.

Reading Steve Jobs biography recently I came across the 1st Think Different advert text from and I think that what Andrews is talking about is taking this type of idea and using it from a Christian perspective. If you're not familiar with it follow this link to Jobs reading it on You Tube - it's powerful.