J. Davy Crockett III

A generation ago, audiences around the world were enthralled by the Star Wars Trilogy, an epic story about the struggle between good and evil. The colorful, memorable characters were either on the side of the "force" representing good or the "dark side" representing evil. One could envision a number of obvious analogies in this tale and it made for exciting entertainment.

But, why darkness? It seems that many people are fascinated by, and even drawn to, the "dark side."

What happened to the "functional" family?  You know, the one with a Dad and a Mom and children centered around the home, doing the things families do, working together, playing together, laughing and sometimes crying together.

Sometimes, we can look at a thing and not truly “see” it for what it is, from every angle. Our approach to life with its joys, trials, and challenges often depends upon our perceptions of something—how we choose to see—in any given situation. An analogy that seems to fit this human proclivity is how one looks at a diamond, the rarest of precious stones.

You’ll never meet an “average” person. Oh sure, someone might be referred to as “average,” but no one ever sees himself as average. Every person is unique. Certainly, there are some commonalities, but each human being is made up of the genetic hand he or she has been dealt, along with experiences, environment, culture, religion, and other factors of life. Some individuals excel in life and stand out; others live their lives in “quiet desperation” as spoken of by the poet Thoreau.

Depression plagues many people. I’m not talking about having a bad day or feeling blue, which everyone experiences now and then. The depression I’m referring to is the kind of feeling that incapacitates a person with overwhelming feelings of dark and foreboding thoughts that cannot simply be shaken off. It is the kind of depression that drives people to do desperate, often irrational things, including suicide.