You know that’s one of those terms I think about a lot these days. I like to point that out to my psychoanalysist, and he likes to point back to me, asking myself to explain what I mean by that.

It’s pretty easy to see a cut or a broken bone. You can test if someone is infected with the COVID virus or has the flu. Symptoms are pretty obvious. Mental illness is a much more complicated thing, if it really exists at all or is just in your head. There really is no right or wrong way to view the world.

One of the things I struggle with is figuring out whether or not a thought it mentally ill or not. What part is my beliefs, and which part is the illness? Are my beliefs right or wrong? But it’s not that simple. My analyst — and honestly most of the books I’ve read on mental illness point out — that beliefs are only harmful if they cause actual harm to myself or others.

I think part of my problem, is I don’t fully agree with the liberal consensus that is so dominate in Albany-area. But that also doesn’t make me a Trump-loving conservative. I believe in the right to be left alone, especially out in the country and in the woods. I believe in the second amendment and gun rights. I’m not worried about a little smoke in country — things that happen on the farm or in the wilderness are far less impactful then what happens in the cities, multiplied over thousands of people.