Crazy Stars
On mental health months, weeks and days...
May is Mental Health Awareness Month in America. Awareness is a nebulous concept. As important as all the awareness-labeled months (and weeks and days) are for fundraising, there’s something infantilizing about assuming everyone will forget about major diseases, minorities and the Earth itself unless we are tapped on the collective shoulder. Then again, in the words of Maya Angelou: “Most people don’t grow up. It’s too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older.” Maybe we’re being infantilized for a reason.
There’s also something odd to claiming what can’t be claimed. In this case, time. It reminds me of the early 90s, when my parents gave my sister and I stars from The International Star Registry. Which I thought for sure was not a thing anymore, but I just looked. It’s still there. There’s a “60-day money-back guarantee.” In case of what, in case you can’t find your star? Astrological reasons? Does it take two months to find a star, even though the big caveat is the star must be visible from North America (don’t even think about The Southern Cross, I swear to God...). Maybe it’s in case you don’t believe your star is really yours. That was my big concern as a kid. That everyone was being sold the same star. As an adult, my concern is how silly and a bit sad it is to corral the stars. I imagine this boondoggle falls in the same file at NASA as astronaut ice cream, but astronaut ice cream you can touch. Anyway, this is a long aside. It’s over now.
October is actually host to Mental Illness Week. And Mental Illness Day? Also in October. One of the defining features of October is that it’s nowhere near May. So what are we doing here? Trying, I guess. Making an effort. Shaky as “awareness” is, and shaky as these time periods are, they are variations on a valuable theme. The cause of mental health, in particular, has always meant a lot to me. Like most people, I have friends and family who’ve struggled with it and known several people who have died by suicide (suicide prevention month is September).
Grief Is for People is The New York Public Library’s “book of the day” today (here we go again with the distinctions and the corralling). I was actually already writing this post when it came to my attention, so this is a happy/sad coincidence. I imagine this selection is at least partially because we’re in May. The book is on-topic. It’s certainly the only book I’ve written that comes with the number for the suicide & crisis lifeline in the back. If you’d like to buy it, that’s very appreciated. But it only helps me. And FSG.
If you’d like to buy a book that does not help me or a publisher, I put this together a few years ago (along with my friend Greg Larson and Todd Oldham): Sad Stuff on The Street. Between everyone volunteering and fronting the cash, 100% of proceeds go to The National Alliance for Mental Illness. As of last year, our goofy little project made about $5,000 for NAMI. You can always just donate to them directly too. Ammo (the publisher) has the books in a storage facility in California so, fair warning, it might take a little while to get to you.
Finally, these two charities are good as well:
In the meantime, be well or at least be well-adjusted. And don’t wait for the calendar. May every day be May.
Sloane x
(sorry for typos)