Mood Swings

Mood Swings…it sounds like a ride you would find at an amusement park for hippies, right there between the Black Light Haunted Cave and the Grateful Dead-Drop – “freefall from 20 stories while never leaving the ground.” I am not sure what causes us to go from happy jubilance to locked-in-our-room-shut-ins burning candles and listening to easy listening 80’s music (Good ol’ Michael Bolton). Speaking of which, anyone notice the recent run of Office Space on TV? Classic. But not even a movie like Office Space can break us out of the doldrums of depression, yet, some days not even torrential downpours can knock us off cloud nine.

So how can we swing so far so fast? One moment you are cracking up at a David Cross joke about picking up women from a garbage truck, the next we are huddled in a corner of a dark room listening to Yacht Rock classics like “Rosanna” or “Sarah” (“no time is a good time for goodbye” - so powerful because its true) or some other song with a girl’s name as the title. Is it a chemical imbalance? Mental abuses during adolescence? An affinity for riding the emotional roller-coaster backwards at night with no lights, upside-down wearing a soaking wet bathing suit and t-shirt because you thought it would be a bright idea to ride the splash-down water slides so that you could freeze your butt off while on your 60mph trip into emotional oblivion because you want the additional pain?

Should we all become emotionally numb like all the extras in every 1950’s sci-fi flick that took place in a monotone uniform-wearing future? Well that’s not the answer. Should we avoid over-the-top drama that is portrayed in a Telemundo soap opera? Probably a good idea. But sometimes rational thought doesn’t help in emotional situations. The ‘snap’ analogy or ‘switch’ that some analysts use to describe emotional breakdowns aren’t just snazzy catch words.

Mood Swings…sounds like a dance club the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies would play at – “express your free spirit and defiance of the Great Depression through the art of dance.” As quickly as it takes to throw your partner over your head and pull them through your legs while spinning them 18 times, a person’s mood can shift with a single phone call, a bad burrito, or an alarm clock. It can be your partner wanting to sit this one out or preferring to do the hop, or can-can instead of the swing.

Mood Swings…sounds like a sports bar dedicated to baseball, tennis, and golf – the only sports that will put a swing back in your step, with the help of alcohol consumption, large TV screens, and surrounded by highly emotional and devout fans who are always on the verge of full out brawl. A mood is emotionally charged with events that include an individual’s invested interests. So a drop of a putt, a 9th inning game-winning home run, a well placed drop shot can make or break a person’s day or mood. Why do sports control our emotional strings like a tightly strung racket? Maybe this is what separates (generalizations forthcoming, be warned) men from women. A sports team winning is like buying new shoes, there, that should make it more understandable. Now guys, come with me to page 2…


Ever felt like punching a wall or giving high five to anyone within a 30 foot radius after a touchdown? Then you know what I am talking about, it isn’t just a game, it is status amongst your friends, its bragging rights for a whole year, its pride, and to proudly to exclaim THIS IS MY SCHOOL/TEAM AND WE ARE GOOD!

So there you go, mood swings…it sounds like…well, I think you get the point. So on those days that everything seems dreary and glum, as if the sun will never shine again, remember that the pendulum will swing back, continuing the cosmic balance of fate. The sun will remain unwavering, we just have to wait for the world to turn, and it will. News channels flash images of death, despair, accidents, and tragedies because they make better stories and keep viewers transfixed. But daily, society progresses and builds, people recover and even grow stronger, victims are remembered and future ones are saved by the formers’ sacrifices. When acts of violence seem senseless and unsettling, acts of kindness will prevail.