I've been kind of depressed lately. No, strike that, I've been depressed lately, no qualifiers needed. Everywhere I look are things that either make me sad, angry or just depress the crap out of me. It's been a rough year. Disappointments have abounded; people I love have let me down, other people I love have been afflicted with terrible health problems, the news is just one long litany of depressing, disturbing, and unsettling accounts of violence, terror attacks, poverty, and corruption. Social media is full of political rants and memes, my cat died and I'm still fat. It is no comfort to me that everyone I know feels the same. You may feel the same way too. There really seems to be no joy in Mudville.

I like writing funny stuff the best, and it's hard to be funny — for me anyway — when I'm depressed. I was looking for some way out of this when I remembered that bit in the bible where it says something along the lines of, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8).

It's good advice; yes, the world is a terrible place, but it always has been. It has also always been wonderful. Preachers, especially American preachers, love putting it about that we're in the end times, that things are the worst they've ever been and they're only going to get worse, and often from the pulpits of multi-million-dollar churches with thousands of congregants. When they say that, I wonder what a Jew in Europe in 1940 would think about that, or a Vietnamese villager in the 1970s, or a villager in the Belgian Congo, or someone during the Black Plague.

I just returned from a mission trip to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was a disappointing trip in a lot of ways. Our group was much smaller than normal, due to a number of people dropping out at the last minute, so we weren't able to do a lot of things we normally do. Very few of those who did go were what you'd call healthy, or even young. The average age was about 60, so the interaction with the kids at Potato Creek was a lot more low-key.

I found myself being really hung up on it. I was more upset about those who bailed out on us than I was thankful for those who did come. I was wrong. Most of those who came barely have a pot to piss in and yet they sacrificed their time, and money that they could (most of them) ill afford, to go and help the helpless. To feed the hungry. To pay attention to kids, all too many of whom suffer from neglect, hunger, and poverty and to let them know that they are not alone, they are loved, both by us and more importantly, by God.

We've been doing this trip for 13 years now, and people often ask me, "Are you doing any good?" The honest answer to that is, I don't know. I think we are, I believe we are, but I don't know. Every year, we notice little things that seem to be getting better and I like to think that we've played some small part in it, but I can't say for sure. One thing I do know is that because of this piddly little mission trip, started 13 years ago by a tiny country church as an experiment, three other churches have started doing the same thing, two on Pine Ridge and one in Kentucky. That is a good thing. That is exactly what Paul was talking about.

People love to bitch about "millennials." We old farts say they're stupid, shallow, spoiled, entitled, disrespectful, over-sexed, and lazy, among other things. In other words, pretty much the exact same things that were said about my generation and about every generation, by the ones that preceded them. While I've got to say that those things are true of some millennials, it is not true about all of them, at least not the ones I know. The ones I know are smart, respectful, and work hard for what they've got. A lot of them are much better informed than me, and work hard to understand the world, and to make it a better place. As far as over-sexed, what generation isn't in its youth? From what I've seen, these kids are far more open-minded and accepting than my own ever was, more inclined to judge a person by his or her character than by their outward appearance, or personal proclivities. That also, in my opinion anyway, is a good thing, a just thing.

Science and industry are also popular punching bags these days and often for very good reasons, especially industry, but every day it seems that I see news of both working to make things better. Inventors are coming up with new ways of producing energy and water. I don't know that there has ever been a time in history when more resources were being applied, by private individuals and companies, to correct the problems that confront us all, from global warming, to Doctors Without Borders, to digging wells and providing water for drought-stricken regions of the world. These are all commendable, honorable, and worthy of praise. We just don't get to hear about them as much.

Even politics may be changing for the better. At the very least, more people are getting involved (and I include those who oppose my views as well), and that is a good thing. Getting involved is the first step in re-taking our government and making it "of the people, by the people, and for the people." The next step is probably learning to resist the urge to believe anything that confirms our own opinions. That's not really likely, human nature being what it is, but it could happen.

So anyway, I stepped outside onto my front porch and saw hawks soaring above me. We never saw birds like that when I was a kid, or the herons (or whatever those long-necked, pointy-beaked birds are) that I now see every day. I looked around at the farm where I grew up, and it's beautiful. I remind myself that I've got a relatively leak-free roof over my head. I've got air-conditioning in the summer, and I don't have to worry about freezing to death in the winter. I've got just about the perfect amount of money (enough for all my needs, and some of my wants). I've got a beautiful wife who has never let me down, five dogs who are crazy about her and reasonably tolerant of me, and two cats left.

I've got good friends and family, a church where I really belong, and a God who loves me. I'm doing a lot better than a lot of people, and the wherewithal to try to help some of them. Sure there are bad things in the world. There always have been, and there always will be, but there are wonders out there too.

Those wonders aren't hidden either. They're right there, right in front of our faces, if we can only make ourselves see them. One thing I've noticed about happy people, regardless of their religion, or lack of religion. They're largely the ones who follow Paul's advice habitually. Although I'm not personally very good at it, I'm going to try to work a little harder at it. Just writing this has made me feel better about things. We should probably all work a little harder at it.