Article March 31, 2003 Issue

The poet must live

The Christian Science Monitor

The Chicago Tribune has had front-page stories in recent weeks about the suicides of young mothers from postpartum depression. It reminded me of my response to the current film The Hours. It made me appreciate my own healing of mental instability.

While outwardly I fulfilled my innumerable tasks, for weeks I would feel mentally trapped in a darkness from which there was little escape.

The film illustrates the courage it takes to face down depression and keep trying to connect. One character commits to making a second birthday cake for her husband after the first one collapses because of her confusion. Another buries her fears about the party she's giving by ordering from the florist as many hydrangeas and roses as her apartment will permit. The character who is a writer finds refuge in her sister's early arrival for tea even though the children are badly behaved. These acts of hospitality that might look small from the outside are lifelines of love, beauty, and unselfishness.

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