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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 4561546, member: 110226&quot;]Over the better part of my life I have had to deal with depression.&nbsp; The reasons for this are manifold and I do not intend to delve into that jungle here.&nbsp; I would like to talk about some of the activities, including collecting coins, that has helped me cope when a dark wave crashes in.</p><p><br /></p><p>I speak of a wave, and that is what depression really is.&nbsp; It is a vast ocean with undulating currents that wash in and carry one off in its undertow.&nbsp; The result is periods of disinterest in the world, literally everything.&nbsp; The mind becomes frozen into a very dark place.</p><p><br /></p><p>There really isn’t a cure to this.&nbsp; The reality is that one needs to have life long coping mechanisms that help lift the mind from a perpetual funk.&nbsp; In my case, a key element, along with listening to music and reading, has been collecting – minerals, Asian art, coins, ceramics and prints and other works of art.</p><p><br /></p><p>Collecting, ingrained since I a child, has been an extension of my interest in the world-at-large, and ancient and modern history in particular.&nbsp; How interesting to have, in hand, a coin produced during the height of Athens in the 5th century BC, or a denarius of Marc Anthony, or a follis of Justinian I!&nbsp; How wondrous minerals are, in all of their myriad shapes and crystal habits, manifesting themselves into fantastic colors and patterns!&nbsp; And, so it goes, as does life.</p><p><br /></p><p>The collection keeps growing, and I imagine it will eventually look like something between a museum and a warehouse, but the road has been fulfilling, with lots of detours, and while the future is always in doubt, at least there is always an owl to admire.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1129108[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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