In light of the Christmas season, I have been watching Die Hard. I have picked up a few life lessons, specifically regarding depression.
- Sometimes well-meaning people give you advice that turns out to not work so well for what you’re up against. (‘fists with your toes’).
- Even the best-looking, most well-meaning, innocent plans can go horribly awry.
- Fighting is essential.
- Even with years of experience and tons of expertise, you can have many setbacks and get really, really beat up.
- Simple, little things make a huge difference. For good and ill.
- Sometimes in the course of the battle, people we care about can get disrupted, even hurt.
- The enemy is ruthless and will go to incredible lengths to take you down.
- Crap often happens around Christmas. Especially parties.
- The bad guys will try to convince you that there is no help for you. They’re wrong.
- Some good guys are helpful. Some people who are supposed to help you don’t know what they’re doing or are actually douchebags.
- While Hans Grüber and his minions are the primary bad guys, there’s a ton of secondary bad things that happen, directly or indirectly because of the bad guys.
- You MUST keep fighting.
- Lots of times you’re gonna think you deserve a break, that this isn’t fair, that not one more bad thing can happen. You’re right that you deserve a break. But there’s no such thing as fair, and no amount of deserving better is going to make a lick of difference towards making it happen.
- There will always be selfish people out there who will exploit your torment for their own gain.
- Having a friend who believes you and supports you, even if they can’t be there in the middle of the fight with you, even if reaching out to them is a pain and inconvenience for them, can be the difference between life and death.
- Sometimes, some people will be upset with you for how you’re fighting because they have no idea what the battle is really like and they think they know how you’re supposed to do it better, even though they’ve never done remotely the same thing. Don’t listen to them.
- Sometimes your support system has their own issues, their own pain. This may limit their ability to give you everything you need. This is okay. Appreciate them for what they are and what they are able to give you.
- There’s a lot of swearing in these nasty adventures. Don’t let pearl-clutchers make that the focus or make you feel guilty about it. When all is said and done, a few wirty durds don’t mean a thing.
- Sometimes other people, with regular lives and jobs that don’t have anything to do with this kind of adventure, will, through a twist of fate, cross paths with it. Those people have a choice to run away, fight you, or be brave and make the choice to support you through it. Those who make that sincere choice are gold. Treasure them.
- Media portrayals of adventures like this are exciting, but often very wrong.
- Classical music makes everything better.
- You will make it out of that adventure. Beat that particular foe. But be prepared for sequels.
- No matter what happens, no matter what kind of crap gets thrown at you, no matter what kind of fallout there may be to deal with afterwards, remember this: you are John f***ing McClane. You are going to beat this crap. You always will. That’s what you were made to do.