Does anyone get called a ‘Jeremiah’ nowadays? It was never a compliment. Doommonger, naysayer, pessimist, gloomy bugger – poor Jeremiah’s tone does not chime with the modern sensibility of upbeat optimism. Not a man for jokes or folderol. But I like a bit of gloom myself, a bit of downbeatery, to leaven things a bit. I remember reading the biblical quote from the Book of Jeremiah, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved”, on a wild October day some 50 years ago and thinking, ‘yup, that’s the way of things’. The moment has passed and left you well and truly behind. Failed again – only this time, failed worse.
This is not so much a question of depression and mental health, as a thoroughly British…
