Today is June 6, and currently the temperature in Seattle is 47 degrees. Yes, that’s 47 degrees Fahrenheit! All this February weather has gotten me thinking about Seasonal Affect Disorder, which is real, in case you want to know. I’m originally from Minnesota, so in all honesty I’m not profoundly affected by the weather. I’ve seen worse! But it takes its toll. Especially when it feels like this pattern is a part of Global Weirding. It’s a little scary to take the dogs out in early June and bundle up like it’s still the middle of winter.

So…here’s something else that can cheer us all up. (Or at least me.) Like pretty much everybody else, I’ve been watching political events unfold this week with almost obsessive interest. I’ve been checking and re-checking my favorite political blogs–my favorite? that’s easy…go here–and following every breaking news story about Obama clinching the nomination, Clinton bowing out, and everything in between.

As I’ve been watching this historic election, I’ve felt more and more optimistic, more and more hopeful, about the direction our country is taking. And I’ve even dared to look forward to seeing clients in November. Why? Because I remember seeing clients in November 2004, and it was a hard, hard time back then. It’s no secret that I live and work in the indigo-blue city of Seattle, so the 2004 election returns were not good news for most of my clients. And for some of them, they were seriously depressing. (For a few, they were dangerously depressing!) I was really concerned, both personally and professionally, about how things were going on a national scale.

I mention all of this primarily because–as I said–I’m feeling optimistic and hopeful about current events, despite all the terrifying problems like cyclones, earthquakes, political upheaval, terrorism, global “weirding,” and so on. I’m optimistic and hopeful because I really think our nation is about to turn the page on rhetoric and policies that haven’t helped us face these problems.

But I also mention it because I’m trained as a “systems” therapist, meaning I do not see individual mood problems (for instance) simply as an individual’s problem. When someone tells me she’s dangerously depressed by election returns, I take her word for it. I don’t assume she’s just clinically depressed. I don’t assume she just has something “wrong with her brain.” I know better. Big events have big effects on individual people.

So if you have the misfortune of living and working in 47-degree weather today, take a moment to check out your favorite political blog. Things are looking up!

(Knock on wood!)

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am and is filed under Being Your Best Self, Feeling Mad, Sad, or Afraid, Fun on Fridays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.