Estonian countryside

I was telling Chris, my new friend from Ghent, that I'd gone into a depression several years ago and could see nothing but darkness and doom.

He seemed interested.

I was interested that he was interested, as he is an accomplished man, a statesman who worked on Belgium's entry into the EU, and a writer who reads widely.

You were depressed, he asked? You do not seem so now. What were you depressed about?

The earth, I said. That we are ruining the earth and that it's irreversible.

Ah, he said. Yes, yes, that's understandable. I feel the same often, that we are hurting the earth but that there's nothing one man can do about it.

We were riding bicycles on a dirt road through the countryside of Estonia and had stopped to take a break. The sky was clear and blue with big white clouds, just the way it was supposed to be.

How did you get out of your depression, Chris asked?

I realized that I was only polluting myself, I said.