2 posts tagged “depression”

Last year, I came home from Whole Foods after having purchased organic granny smith apples at $1.49 a pound, to which my mom responded with "that's kind of expensive." Today, conventional apples cost $1.69 at the local grocery stores.

Maybe it's prevalent and I'm only realizing it now, but I feel as if this week was emblematic of the current food crisis. JJ and I stopped by the Briarwood Family Residence to donate some bags of clothing for the families and the recreation specialist told us about how they are really in need of food. Yesterday, when I spontaneously decided to cut my Child & Adolescent Psychopathology class to go to AA and JJ's Sociology of Poverty with my old professor, a guest speaker from St. John's Bread & Life Soup Kitchen took over the class. Food shortage, New York City Council, donations, volunteers were among the gamut of words being used.

A few friends are having difficulties finding stable jobs post-college and "it's the economy" is no longer a deflection of personal responsibility. It's the economy. And as the value of the American dollar drops because the Federal Reserve is printing more money to pay for the War in Iraq, I receive an e-mail from a friend telling me that by the time I graduate with my MA, we'll all be facing another Depression. My heart and hands hurt when a small middle aged woman approached me, with my arms full of produce, asking me for fifty cents.

I have my own issues regarding emergency food charities and private charities in general; I'm not pro-privatization here, but you'll probably find AA and me volunteering at the soup kitchen this summer.

...but now there might be!

You know how you can peruse through the Hallmark card aisle because it's compartmentalized to perfection? Have a grandfather who's turning seventy? There's a card for that. Have a neighbor who's just given birth? Have an uncle who is graduating college? There's probably a card for that. Have a co-worker whose plant died because you "mistook" orange juice for water when she was on vacation and you want to apologize for that? Well, there could be a card for that.

Do you starve yourself because you're a victim of prescribed dress sizes? Are you suffering from abnormal neurotransmitter activity? I find it somewhat appalling that eating disorder, miscarriage and sterility are some are some of the new labels that you'll find under the cards in your local store. It turns out that Hallmark released a line of cards called Journeys. Cancer diagnosis, hair loss (!), waiting for test results, et al.

As if holidays and greeting cards are bad enough for personal occasions, now there are cards that showcase generalized statements to make an awkward moment into a hopeless situation.

AA and I joked about the travesty of this and she alluded to a whole bunch of possible greetings for:

Sterility:

at least it's not a barren wasteland!

Sexual orientation (yes, 'coming out' was one of the new cards):

at least you don't have to worry about becoming pregnant!

I could write ad nauseam about the greeting card industry and how we're quickly and conveniently reduced to numbers, not people. Maybe they should send me a card about cynicism.