Why the Black Dog?

From BrowsingItaly: This tunnel is a repurposed railroad tunnel going from Levanto to Bonassola in Liguria, Italy just north of the Cinque Terre region
In 2009, we walked from Bonassola, where we stayed for 3 nights, to Levanto but we took the much more strenuous over the mountain route (and much more scenic). We returned by train

The black dog is a common metaphor for depression popularized by William Styron (of Sophie's Choice fame). Although I love his way with words, I never understood why he chose Black Dog. Sort of unfair to black dogs in general (we had the cutest black dog Zoe). I prefer endless tunnel where you can see no light or the Slough of Despair (John Bunyan) in which you are mired in a thick black sludge that you see no way out of. Or a black miasma of choking gas in which you are suffocating.

 

I've had black periods, mainly when I was  young, lasting up to a year in which I could see no light, no joy. Fortunately these have gone away and have morphed into patches of blue or periods of funk, not so much concerning myself but trying to see a future for a certain someone.

 

I've made a lot of progress in dealing with almost 32 years of 'collecting'. Bags and bags of stuff for Purple Heart including at least one huge jacket of Steve's. I put away the crib serving as a holding tank for toys and never used for my grandbabies. I removed more weed trees. Today I will tackle the mess of Tupperware with mismatching lids after I babysit some grandbabies.

 

Below is one of several tunnels that I went through on my bike ride through the Allegheny mountains last year. This one at least had lights. I didn't stop to take photos of the long one without lights that we were warned to carry a light through. I did have the flashlight app for my iphone I should have gotten out but it was raining. I assumed if I just concentrated on the speck of light in the distance, I'd be OK but I was left with a nauseous feeling of floating.