I had a pretty grim summer...stuck in a basement apt. in a new town away from my wife, studying for a grad school exam that I had already failed once...and I remember in one of my darkest moments, I looked over at the clock radio sitting on my desk, next to my computer. It's a cheap-o $6 model that I bought at Wal-Mart, but at the time it seemed to me to be the most perfect thing in the world. I loved its size and shape, and the way it performed its duties (i.e. telling the time) with such care and precision. I was almost proud of it, because despite being a product of the cheap made-in-China assembly line process, it had turned out so perfectly.

Anyway, such things might not be much help to those suffering from severe depression, but I still look to that clock radio when I'm down and remember how much it helped me.