If emotions drive the words, as I feel they do, then this statement, while true, comes from the bright side: "Say happy things, look at the world in a happy way, and you, too, will be happy!"

My dark side disagrees: "There's yet another happy person telling me I shouldn't be depressed, because they're not, and it's not so hard, is it? Great. Thanks for all your help. <eyeroll>"

I understand how it might sound like that. Of course a sunny disposish is not always possible or even desirable - cheeriness can be equally self-indulgent, and in many ways nature really is trying to kill us.

But there are some fact questions that people feel bad about quite gratuitously. That's what I would like to change. These are the obstacles to human contentedness that people only encounter if they actually go out looking for obstacles, looking for something to feel bad about.

There's lots to legitimately be upset about in this world, lots of suffering endured by people not unlike us. We don't need extra suffering contrived ex nihilo by our minds.