Why so glum, chum?

Sometimes you just can't fault the quotes the Brudders throw out in their Daily Dig... I take it the following is meant as consolation for the lean years ahead after the unspeakable democratic events of recent times...

If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of the skunk cabbage already advance toward a new year.Their gravestones are not bespoken yet. Who shall be sexton to them? Is it the winter of their discontent? Do they seem to have lain down to die, despairing of skunk cabbagedom?
--Henry David Thoreau, "Journal"

Sexton: n. An employee or officer of a church who is responsible for the care and upkeep of church property and sometimes for ringing bells and digging graves.

Obviously on the same theme Tolstoy does what Russians do best:
My struggle to overcome suicidal despair...

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