Being Manic Depressive Is Exhausting

By Allan Armitage|July 10, 2008

Working in this industry often reminds me of all the time I spent as a baseball parent. During my son’s baseball seasons, which lasted longer and longer as he ascended to the next levels, Susan and I were raving manic depressives. Up one moment, down the next, celebrating a home run or anticipating a strikeout with dread, we never knew what to expect. One thing never changed, however: Baseball season always came around again. If you are a parent, you can understand.

This industry evokes similar behavior, perhaps not moment to moment, but surely day to day. The drought situation in the Southeast, for example, has made us all manic depressives. Last fall, when the heavens snapped shut, we went into a region-wide depression, all of us, from seed breeders and distributors to home gardeners who couldn’t water their hanging baskets. As winter rains slowly appeared, we stood outside and smiled as reservoirs started filling again. When rains slowed down, we worried. We put in our crops, prepared our beds and took on our role of cautious optimists. As spring approached, rains returned, albeit still accompanied with worrisome predictions from forecasters, and we dared hope again.

The television news of low stream flows, quirky cold fronts and warm fronts, and rains falling around us instead of on us, brought back more depression. Then nice long rainfalls in March lifted us once more. I am exhausted!

If weather was the only problem, my spirits would be more lifted than down, but now we have transportation costs skyrocketing and economic woes, along with a host of other energy-related issues. But what else is new? If we dwell on the depressing too long, we actually believe that the apocalypse is upon us; that is not who we are. The rains will come, the customers believe in us and will buy. Right now spring sales in the Southeast are robust, and by God, they will stay that way throughout the fall. I am a believer.

My son has hung up his baseball cleats and I have sworn that my manic depressive days are over. I refuse to be down. I certainly will adjust and adapt to changing times, but I will continue to believe good days are ahead. We all have our problems, we are in this together. I would not want it any other way.