Not Having a Garden Makes Me SAD

(Written in Winter 2005)   

Never has a human malady had a better name than Seasonally Affected Disorder, or SAD.  It is a condition that people get in the winter, because apparently there isn’t enough sunlight to keep them cheerful.  Some people even get treatment in “sun boxes,” which are large banks of grow lights, or something, that help perk up SAD sufferers' spirits.

One of the drawbacks of living in the north is that we really do get short changed by sunlight.  There have even been studies that show certain medical conditions have a higher incidence in the north, due to not enough vitamin D, which somehow comes from exposure to the sun.

I would never make fun of anyone who has SAD.  I know some people who seem to have it all year around, though.  Maybe spring makes them sad due to the mud.  Maybe summer is too hot.  Maybe fall makes them sad because winter is just around the corner…

Part of the problem is that a lot of people – like me, for instance – don’t take advantage of the winter sun we have.  It’s too cold.  It’s too messy.  It’s too bright.  We went to a movie Sunday afternoon, and it was packed.  All that light outside, and there we were, inside in the dark.

Think of those poor people near the Arctic Circle.  They may have played all night in the summer, but they’re really hurting for sunlight now!  Or, maybe they get used to it…

I’ve read that far northern locations tend to have a problem with alcoholism.  People in Iceland, for example, have little to do but drink in the winter, apparently, and the other three seasons leave a lot to be desired too.  Wisconsin is no Iceland, but drinking does seem to be popular, with Wisconsin holding the title for the highest per capita consumption of brandy, and yet, so few Saint Bernards.

I have my ups and downs like everybody else, though probably not as far up or down.  I don’t think I have SAD.  If anything, I tend to be saddest in the fall, only because that seems to have been the season when the worst things have happened to me over the years.  Winter is something to be gotten through, as I see it, but not a reason to be depressed.

Maybe part of it is just based on personality.  I like to joke around, and I can find the humor in almost anything.  I subscribe to comics.com, which sends me 25 or so comics everyday for $10 a year.  What a great investment!  And, I don’t go looking for sad things.  I’ll pick a comedy over a tragedy most of the time, even though I know the tragedy is probably better.

For those of you who suffer from SAD, the good news is that by the first of February, the days are getting longer at break-neck speed.  We’ve broken the back of winter.  The bad news is that we’ve all lived through enough Februarys to know that the winter weather will be with us for a while, despite what the groundhogs say.

When we lived in Duluth, I remember raking the yard during the second week in May, trying to break up the last remaining piles of snow that had fallen in November.  If you haven’t experienced SAD, and you’d like to, may I recommend a winter in Duluth?