Dorothy Rowe

When Michael Leunig isn't upsetting right-wing Australians (they're very easy to upset) he draws the most perceptive cartoons about life. Some of these cartoons are full of joy, but many are about what the Buddha called dukkha, suffering. The Buddha explained, 'Pain, grief and despair are dukkha. Being forced into proximity with what we hate is suffering; being separated from what we love is suffering; not getting what we want is suffering.'

George Bernard Shaw once remarked that there are only two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting it. The trouble with getting what we want is that along with getting what we want comes some things that we don't want. Parents want their children to be good. Children want to be good because that way they can try to make sure that they don't lose their parents' love. If we all didn't try to be good, living in an orderly society would be impossible. But being good means seeing yourself as being not good enough. When we believe that we are not good enough we blame ourselves when things go wrong. The natural response to a disaster is to feel sad. However, if we blame ourselves for that disaster we turn natural sadness into depression.

Good people are experts in blaming themselves. This is why only good people get depressed.

October 25, 2006