Tag: depression

  • How To Tell Your Kid There’s No Santa Clause

    How To Tell Your Kid There’s No Santa Clause

    One Christmas long ago my Appalachian father, Ralph, took his revolver, climbed on the roof, shot once into the woods, came back in and said, “Sorry folks, but looks like old Santa just committed suicide.” It was a real hoot. The whole family got it. I was a kid, but didn’t believe in Santa Claus…

  • You Don’t Have to Have a Merry Christmas

    You Don’t Have to Have a Merry Christmas

    The darkest evening of the year was yesterday, though for most people, it was just the longest evening of the year. Winter solstice. The shortest day. Here, in L.A., dusk came along around 4:30. That’s too soon for me. Going to bed has, for nearly forty years, been a reckoning with the shadow that comes…