May you be ever spared this suffocating, madness-inducing winter depression.  Lopez describes the misery or insanity it can bring on, and the compassion often shown to those who succumb to it. It seems a product of endless cold and darkness, but it has an uncomfortably close cousin in the sense of being overwhelmed that is symptomatic of much modern burn out and malaise.
‘To feel the weight of life. To look ahead to all that must be accomplished and to retreat to the present feeling defeated, weary before starting, a core of anger, a miserable sadness.’
See also my bestellar review of this wonderful book, complete with a mosaic of quotations, metaphors, triologisms and other alluring Eskimo words.
Source: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. 243
