{"id":747,"date":"2007-12-20T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/depression-suffering-and-playi.html"},"modified":"2007-12-20T10:45:09","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T10:45:09","slug":"depression-suffering-and-playi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/depression-suffering-and-playi.html","title":{"rendered":"Depression, Suffering, and Playing Your Cards Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"43939444.jpg\"
\nAfter Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker<\/a> read Zana’s comment, he provided the link to lyrics of Kenny Rogers’s, “The Gambler.”<\/a>
\nI’ve sung this song so many times (yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re thinking … “NO, GOD, DON’T SING IT FOR US” like I did “The 12 Bipolar Days of Christmas”<\/a>), but I’ve never contemplated the meaning of the words. Oh man, are they profound, and they provide so much insight as to how we, depressives, might play “our hand.” Thanks, Larry!<\/p>\n

On a warm summer\u2019s evenin\u2019 on a train bound for nowhere
\nI met up with the gambler, we were both too tired to sleep
\nSo we took turns a starin\u2019 out the window at the darkness
\n\u2018Til boredom overtook us and he began to speak
\nHe said, \u201cSon, I\u2019ve made a life, out of readin\u2019 people\u2019s faces
\nAnd knowin\u2019 what their cards were by the way they held their eyes
\nFor a taste of your whiskey I\u2019ll give you some advice
\nSo I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow
\nThen he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light
\nAnd the night got deathly quiet and his face lost all expression
\nSaid, \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right.\u201d
\nYou got to know when to hold \u2018em, know when to fold \u2018em
\nKnow when to walk away and know when to run
\nYou never count your money when you\u2019re sittin\u2019 at the table
\nThere\u2019ll be time enough for countin\u2019 when the dealing\u2019s done
\nEvery gambler knows that the secret to survivin\u2019
\nIs knowin\u2019 what to throw away and knowing what to keep
\n\u2018Cause every hand\u2019s a winner and every hand\u2019s a loser
\nAnd the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep
\nAnd when he finished speakin\u2019, he turned back towards the window
\nCrushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep
\nAnd somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even
\nBut in his final words I found an ace that I could keep
\nYou got to know when to hold em, know when to fold \u2018em
\nKnow when to walk away and know when to run
\nYou never count your money when you\u2019re sittin\u2019 at the table
\nThere\u2019ll be time enough for countin\u2019 when the dealing\u2019s done
\nYou got to know when to hold em, know when to fold \u2018em
\nKnow when to walk away and know when to run
\nYou never count your money when you\u2019re sittin\u2019 at the table
\nThere\u2019ll be time enough for countin\u2019 when the dealing\u2019s done\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker read Zana’s comment, he provided the link to lyrics of Kenny Rogers’s, “The Gambler.” I’ve sung this song so many times (yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re thinking … “NO, GOD, DON’T SING IT FOR US” like I did “The 12 Bipolar Days of Christmas”), but I’ve never contemplated the meaning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression"],"yoast_head":"\nDepression, Suffering, and Playing Your Cards Right - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/depression-suffering-and-playi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Depression, Suffering, and Playing Your Cards Right - 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