Dearest Editor, if you will, do Forgive me for Proposing such an Intensive Question upon you, but I lately Find myself Wondering, for What Purpose do we as Human Creations Arise each Morning? I have been Feeling Lacklustre, though your Letters among other Vices bring to me a Sense of Happiness and Warmth. And yet, mere Minutes later I Feel an Emptiness in my Bosom not unlike a Cavern of an Absent Heart. How shall One Build a Heart that is Staunch and Steadfast? An Intensive Question. Regards, ＡＦ

georgiansuggestion:

Gentle Reader–

I am no Philosopher (though Some may say that Itself is a Philosophical Position), but I know Something of those Sensations which you describe and, after Some Years with them, have come to an Answer with which I am at Peace, though it may not serve your Purposes as Well as you may hope.

The Conclusion which occurred to me some Time Ago is this: that as it is an Unnatural Torment to be for Ever in Misery when one’s Circumstances are Comfortable, so Much so that the Distemper is regarded as Illness, so too is it Impossible to be Eternally Happy. Indeed, there is, I have observed, an Unattainable Degree of Contentment and Fulfillment to which Many Persons, who are Otherwise Quite Sound and Intelligent, aspire; It is an Empyrean of Joy unheard of by Even the Greatest of Men, and Fixation Upon this Imagined Felicity causes More Heartbreak than the Most Prolific of Cads.

These Moments of Hollowness to which you allude are a Strain, it is True, and in Face of them it is a Difficulty of the Highest Order to accept the Balm of Little “Vices” Such as this Journal, yet they are, in my Experience the Foundation to building the Staunch Heart for which you yearn. If, for Example, you feel your Spirit darken, you may say to yourself, “Ah! But these are Petty Distractions from my Dissatisfaction and Distress.” Perhaps that is so. Yet is does Only Ill to think, Simply because it is a Passing Distraction, that the Uplift they provide is Insubstantial or Without Worth. The Staunch Heart (of the Metaphorical Kind) is not one Contiguous Mass or Monolith of Success, Romance, Fulfillment, &tc., but Rather a Hodge-podge of Small Pleasures, Beloved Persons, Interest pursued for Edification’s Sake, and so on. It is for this Reason that no Two Hearts are Ever Precisely the Same, and thus I cannot tell you in what Measure you require Such and such a thing to bolster your Disposition, Only that you must build your Heart, with Whatever Aid you can find, in hope that Some Day it will be Enough.

Yours &tc.,
The Editor

(mod note: this is the last mental health related question i’ll be answering.)