So we beat on, boats against the current

OAK RIDGE, TN. (SPECIAL TO WLAF) – Have you ever read a book you can’t stop thinking about?

I’ve been thinking a lot about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, set during New York’s Jazz Age. Nearly a century old and widely hailed as a classic of American literature, I’m embarrassed to admit I had never read it. So, at my daughter’s encouragement, I dove into it during our vacation, and I keep coming back to the final line of the book, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

You don’t have to read the book to appreciate the wonder and intrigue found in Fitzgerald’s final line. The sentence is beautiful, poetic, ambiguous, and for me, a bit haunting. I continually drift back to the last sentence for two reasons – on a personal level the line captures the novel’s themes of struggle we all experience, nostalgia, and the often futile pursuit of dreams. As I enter my transitional decade into retirement, the haunting note of the sentence feels very personal and relevant.

But as someone who works in the sphere of public mental health, the sentence speaks to me as a metaphor for the ongoing mental and emotional struggles that people face, particularly those related to overcoming past difficulties and the relentless effort to progress despite obstacles.

Have you ever felt that way?

When considering mental health concerns, this final sentence reflects the persistent and sometimes overwhelming nature of mental health challenges. The image of “boats against the current” suggests a constant struggle against forces that seem beyond one’s control, which can be related to normal feelings of helplessness or frustration. The idea of being “borne back ceaselessly into the past” touches on the difficulty of healing from past traumas, regrets, or unresolved grief.

And for some, the struggle in its most extreme mode can feel, in the words of Pulitzer Prize author William Styron, like a “despair beyond despair” leading to crippling, suicidal depression.

For those living in this most extreme mode, the currents of life may feel hostile and dangerous, only to be magnified by current global events, rising political temperatures, fear and worry about currents we can’t navigate, and an anxious generation looking for safe harbors. And yet, we beat on – and there in the collective “we” I find comfort and hope.

Poet laureate Maya Angelou famously wrote, “Alone all alone, nobody but nobody can make it out here alone.” It is through the hope-sustaining tethers of connection with one another that we can beat on against the currents we face. We are hardwired for connection, after all. Let us pay witness to those connections by honoring and strengthening them, not confined to precincts of isolation from each other.

During September’s suicide prevention month let us support and encourage each other against internal and external currents of struggle we all face. The weight of past experiences should not be an anchor, but a siren call to a destination that flows with currents of hope, healing, and recovery – to that better tomorrow may we beat on together.

If you need to talk with someone about feelings of stress, anxiety, depression or other symptoms related to mental health concerns, Ridgeview offers same-day access walk-in clinics hours each weekday. Visit ridgeview.com to learn more. Ridgeview’s Mobile Crisis Team is available 24 hours a day at 800-870-5481.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 9/10/2024- 6AM- PAID AD)