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There are days, and sometimes weeks, when disappointing circumstances can seem overwhelming. You feel like you're barely keeping your emotional head above the water, and then you see a giant wave approaching.

I know that winter is hard. I know it’s long in Chicago, and there isn’t much for us to do outside when it’s cold here. I also know that seasonal depression is a real thing.

My friend Billie, director of Africans Reaching Africa, painted this picture for me: “Imagine you lived in the South at the end of the Civil War, and you were told that your Confederate currency was about to be invalidated, but you could exchange it for U.S. legal tender if you did right away, before it was canceled.”

I was struck at the bank when I noticed the vault was open and unattended, yet I was filling out a deposit slip with a pen that was chained to the counter. Doesn’t that seem ironic to you?