Depression and the Countryman

There is a saying about everything carrying the seeds of its own destruction and this, I think can sometimes hold true for countrylife. John B. Keane, a wonderful Irish writer (and uncle of Feargal Keane, the broadcaster) wrote much of his best work around Irish farmers in the 1950s and 60s who had missed the boat on love and adventure, and suffered in silence. That may seem like stories from a different era- but here in rural England in 2010 there are still rural dwellers who have missed out. Sometimes, the medicine of solitude and hard work, can, in this situation become part of the problem. The most and the best any of us can do for a person in this situation is to give him time, let him talk, and to listen.