One day when I was feeling depressed, I went to my local park for a walk.   I saw a flock of Brant.  These are small geese that wander around the lawns plucking and eating grass while cooing softly to each other.  I decided to see what would happen if I walked into the flock and separated them.  They became quite disturbed by the separation.  They became frantic, lifting their wings, chortling loudly and looking around for the others.  They felt alienated by the separation.

Human beings are like Brant, we need to be with our flock. We don’t like being alienated. It causes extreme stress.  Unfortunately, alienation is built into our modern day society. We don’t need to go to the store or restaurant because everything can be delivered. We can even exercise at home.  Our political activity can be done online by signing petitions and donating money. Most people count on their jobs to give them a sense of belonging. But if you are terminated, it’s like a death-sentence. You lose money, but you also lose friends and contacts.

Joining a nature walk and chatting with folks is a good way to break out of alienation. But we feel even better about ourselves if we help others. Helping others through participation in a group gives us some role that makes us feel useful. Delve into a topic and make yourself an expert because of all the reading you’ve done. Use your knowledge to get involved.  Staying busy doing things for your flock is one of the best ways to beat depression. 

Where’s your flock?  You have to decide what your interests are and how you can participate.  Look at hobbies, issues that have come up in your family or look outward to social conflicts and find groups where you can do something to help. Preferably, you would choose something that is truly humanitarian and not just pretending to be.  There are flocks and then there are better flocks to join.  Your family may be your flock, but it may not be as good as making friends inside an organization that you believe in.  I’ve learned that politics can make for dynamic flocks, but politics can also turn on you and have you pushed out.  From this experience, I found it’s good to be part of several organizations and groups. When one fails you, you still have a group in which to flock.

Staying busy always chases away the blues.  But scrubbing the tub everyday just to stay busy is not enough. We all insist on doing something that answers a higher calling.  Just look around and dream about yourself as a hero, then pick out a group that will let you strive for the greater good.