No wonder depression runs so rampant in our culture. It’s exhausting to convince ourselves that the life we have been taught to want provides for the deeper existential needs when it clearly does not in many important ways. The need to live a connected life and avoid feelings of isolation by forging deep human relationships with those around us is simply more difficult here. It’s probably why Westerners are always shocked to see programs and documentaries where people living in relative poverty appear very happy and report feeling contented with their lives. It’s because they are, and a major part is the sense of community they feel from working and living together the way people have done since the early days of our cave ancestors. They wield the most powerful weapon there is against the painful feelings of existential isolation that are central to being human. Connection is essential to happiness and mental health