Page 135 (in the Australian edition)
It's a very real illness, depression. I understand chemical imbalance and all that. But I do think its prevalence has a lot to do with a lack of perspective on your life and a lack of empathy of what's going on in other lives
Thats one quote. Im still looking for the other.
I disagree with the above quote. Some people may become upset about things that may well be deemed a lack of perspective. eg there was a girl in my accounting class who I bumped into crying after an exam. Her bank reconciliation didn't balance. She still received about 90% on the exam but she cried for about a month, she was seriously distraught. That is a lack of perspective. Her emotional turmoil had very little to do with chemical imbalance nor having an unfortunate life. She had had a sheltered childhood and freaked out when she entered the big bad world at Uni. Her pain was very real, and valid, but not depression by my definition.
Some depressed people when brooched about the subject of starving Africans or wotnot might well say "Take my food, take my water, they can have it". It can be a complete lack of self worth. I don't believe sucidal people are spiteful, or necessarily ignorant of the plight of many Africans.
Perspective is not relevant to depression. There will always be someone worse off than oneself. Same as there always will be someone better off than oneself. Thats not the point.
Depression is the inability to climb out of a hole. If a person stops digging, as Bono suggests, they possibly may not sink any further but they are still sitting in the mud and need to do something in order to climb out of the hole.
The person who suggested Bono uses his faith to cope with life may well be right. Bono may so easily use his faith as a crutch that he is not aware that people without such a strong faith have a more complicated path back to sanity. Actually I believe Bono is probably aware of this. There is a Bono quote something along the lines of "If I didnt have my faith, my wife, and my friends, I may have ended up like Michael Hutchence" (or something to that effect, I'm paraphrasing)
Im rambling. In a nutshell I believe Bonos strong faith gives me a lack of perspective on depression.
Did that make sense?
I also agree that the In Conversation/Bono on Bono book actually reveals little about the real Bono. (Im not refering to lack of stories about his wife and children. I wasn't interested in that aspect of his life anyway. ) A number of the stories had been told before, and Bonos answers to other questions were, as the author occasionally suggested, evasive. There wasn't a lot of substance to the book. Bono is still the man behind the glasses. Saying a lot but revealing little.
In Australia we have the expression "he's a parrot" meaning that person reflects back what he sees, repeats what others have done. Bono is very good at mimicking Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Neil Diamond, etc. As for the real Bono? I don't believe we have seen him or if we have, it was a long long time ago.
What a fabulous book.
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