Simple minded fool? Or just too different for our stupid tastes?

Is it possible to be too smart? Can you have so much going on upstairs that it causes you to be depressed?

A study just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry shows that smart kids are four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than average kids. Assuming it’s true, what does it mean?

Bipolar disorder being a crippling life-long mental illness, should parents hope their kids just get average grades? Should a forensic psychiatrist, knowing that a defendant once scored above 1400 on the SAT, be more certain that he or she was not guilty of murder by reason of insanity? Should schools expect that A students will be more likely to need mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics? Why not?

For decades, NAMI types have argued that mental illnesses are chemical imbalances in the brain which cause disabilities needing treatment, even prophylactic treatment. Now it looks reasonable to theorize about a hypothetical chemical imbalance which causes bipolar disorder and also makes people smart. Should we screen all straight-A students and be prepared to treat them medically to keep them from being so smart and going crazy...?

On the opposite side of this thing, GlaxoSmithKlein, maker of the antidepressant Paxil, just announced they won't even look for new drugs in that class anymore, because it's way too hard to know if they work. So ... if psychotropic meds may not even work, and if they have side effects like suicide and diabetes ... um ... should we give them to kids ... at all?

This is going to get extremely complicated! As Gregg Easterbrook writes in Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed, "Does it seem as though no matter how much you know and learn, you'll never really be on top of things? Guess what--you won't."

Well, here's a trick. Let’s give up this goofy, destructive and distracting search for magic-button cures for mental-illness-as-brain-disease. Let’s work out how to deal with different kinds of people, and stop trying to make everyone be average and mechanical and the same. The world will never become a better place because we can predict and control standardized humans. It will only improve if we create more truly new things, and communicate across wider and wider differences.

The drums of relaxation.

Is it at all possible that a rainy day could lift your mood?

 So many times before I have awoke to a more than just a pitter patter. More like a raging storm at sea with thunder crashing and the whole shebang. So many times I've driven down a lowly back road and rolled down the window to feel the rain mist rushing in unto my face and I wonder why anyone could ever be down and depressed when the rain comes. I've often wondered am I just special or crazy or are they both really the same. Then I thought what if everyone in the world could see the rain like I do? This is my feeble attempt at describing the best days of my life.

 Do you feel that? Do you hear it? Can you smell it in the air? It's that time again as the clouds roll across the sky salted with just enough wind to stay collected and move with a rolling like the waves of the sea. Do you see it? The clouds cover the sky so much that from horizon to tree line one cannot see the end. 

 It's going to rain again! I think as I open the windows to feel the pressing wind against my face and watch the clouds rolling in. And as the rain starts to fall you can hear such a sweet rhythm as I'm sure was created by God himself.

 There is no drummer in existence today that could touch it's pattern. I am convinced that every day of rain should be a time of rest and thanks to the one who has yet again looked upon his covenant of peace with us and promises again in his heart not to flood the earth again.

 It is true that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but while unjust men consumed with being busy and the rain having held them back, I should hope to think that the just look at the mercy of the one who gave them life and who has forgiven their sins for another day. 

 Rainy days are the most amazing days to me and I hope there is someone out there who agrees.

Morning Person or Else!

Have you ever felt the majesty of the sun rising over the mountains in the morning, let's just say it's indescribable.

It starts with the rush of a cool breeze the air moves through the trees like a spirit on the move away from the light in fear. The light begins to break through the horizon and almost speaks but with such inspiration that it takes your breath away in aw of the one who holds such power.

And the stars that hold the night in the air begin not to disappear but to bow in worship to the true light that now takes their place to rule as if the king had returned from battle. And the colour, oh, the colour of the sky is changing so quickly it's hard to keep up. It starts as bronze and gold as if to show it's glory then it comes with great royalty as the sky moves to purple and blue. 

If a beautiful sunrise doesn't make you a morning person I worry about you.