Your uncle is depressed. Depression is a common (unfortunately) but treatable mental illness. I strongly suggest that instead of lamenting your uncle as if he has passed away, that you take action and get him to a qualified health professional. His internist or primary care physician should be able to make an assessment, prescribe the appropriate medications, request or approve specialized psychological or psychiatric care and any other outpatient services.

A good nephew would do that for his uncle.

Larry is fine. I think.

He's just being profound again.

I love personal stories. I love that you love your uncle. I am a sap for such goings on.

Good post. I just learned more about you.

Now I’m a little embarrassed for being so obtuse in this post. In reality and for the record:

Jade’s advise is solid.

I have actually done, more than once, what TheraP suggests.

Dickday intuits that I am personally familiar with this sort of circumstance although it did not involve an uncle.

Lastly this post was an analogy, a fiction and a political comment.

But notice how quickly everyone responds with personal empathy. What a fine group of people I talk with here at the Café.

Uncle Sam IS depressed, Larry - and so are his other friends & neighbors. Part of the reason is simple. There's a lot they know, and cannot say. Starting with "things are much worse than we've ever described," followed by "we don't know how to fix it."

That's tough to admit internally, tougher still to say in public, and impossible to say until people are read to hear it. We don't want to hear that shit.

So you talk positively, play for time, and avoid details on any particulars that would lead to aspects of the bigger picture being made apparent.

Besides, just saying this out loud has depressed me. See you in the morning!

I don’t think Barack Obama is depressed. I don’t think Michelle Obama is depressed. And I’m certain their daughters are not depressed. And for reasons that surprise even me, I’m not depressed.

If your daily life is full of ups and downs, no one of which is so exaggerated as to have a life of its own and cause you to be stuck “up” or “down,” then you are not depressed. If the average, the median, the root mean square of your demeanor is “down,” then perhaps you might agree with Thoreau "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation." But even desperation is not “depression.

But when you stop engaging, in a way meaningful to yourself, the eternal stimulation of daily life, then the question of “depression” can be fairly asked. If a child looses interest in their toys, it is a warning that something is amise, something that we might find to be “depression.”

It was the aim of my admittedly obtuse effort at analogy to ask whether a national government could be depressed. I don’t think Geithner is depressed or Senator Cantwell is depressed. JMM asked a question and as I watched the video I sensed an ennuie in their exchange. There was a question. Then there was no answer. Then they moved on. If that was a Senate “hearing” then the song was silence and nobody seemed to care. Has the institution lost its élan ? Might I fairly judge my Uncle Sam to be in a state that, were he a real person, I would think “depressed?” If so then what does that mean and are there analogous interventions? What would they be?

I called this post a “musing,” a dreamy and abstract thought. Maybe it was just my way of avoiding getting depressed.