What Do You Do When You Feel Sad?
I enjoy re-watching favorite TV shows I happen to own on DVD from time to time - and before you scoff, plenty of people own a season or two of something on disc still, streaming services haven’t yet gifted us with unlimited choices on what to watch - and as I was watching an early episode of The Simpsons this month, something about it struck a chord with me. In the little remembered season one episode called “Moaning Lisa”, Lisa finds herself dealing with an unclassifiable sadness. The episode spends a great deal of time focusing on Marge and Homer both trying to cure her of her sadness, Marge specifically. Marge remembers her own experience as a child being told by her mother that she should be happy for the benefit of the people around her and passes on that advice to Lisa and thinks the problem is solved until she sees what the repression of that sadness does to her daughter. Lisa immediately attracts two male classmates who proceed to try to take ...