A former science (astronomy included!) teacher from the former Soviet Union, currently (for more than decade by now) living in the US, desperately needs some moral support from similarly minded! As a person who has been devastated psychologically by the deep cultural shock, financially – by the economic turbulence of the last few years, as somebody who suffers from nostalgia and depression, I’d like to get advice and encouragement from somebody who at one time or another in his/her life found him-/herself in a similar state: when your whole system of values, interests, priorities seems to be crashing around you, when there seems to be no reason to even wake up in the morning – so little new, good and truly exciting things and events you expect from the new day, so disgusting the world, that surrounds you, looks and sounds - from the (inter-)national and local TV news of the day to your neighbors and even the weather. What gave you the strength, the energy, the wisdom, the hope, the faith to overcome such a state of mind and such an outlook? How do you currently fight the returns of this terrible plague (if they, returns, do happen)?
I’d especially welcome the replies from those who have similar interests and intellectual preferences. For the purpose of specifying some of mine I will allow myself some “name-dropping”:-):
my favorite reading – anything of Carl Sagan, Chet Raymo, Hermann Hesse, Julio Cortazar, some of the great Russian poets of XVIII-XX centuries, then – selectively;
favorite music – Bach, Mozart (especially – latest Piano Concertos of the latter), Tchaikovsky, as an ambient music – some stuff from “Hearts of Space” (Bill Douglas, etc.);
favorite films – all of Andrei Tarkovsky’s, favorite TV show – “ Six Feet Under”;
other interests - computers, meditation, hiking in the mountains (such as in Colorado);
favorite quote – Carl Sagan’s from “Pale Blue Dot”:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Soul mates, anyone?

Kris, what can I say?

I'm sure you'll find many others who share your interests here... I'll tell you a little bit about myself... I'm a 33 year old guy living in England but engaged to my lovely Puerto Rican fiance. We're getting married in August and then I'll join her in the US, in deepest, darkest Oklahoma

Sagan was a strong influence on me as a child - I can remember staying up late to watch Cosmos during the summer break when I was 10 A few years back, I was lucky enough to write the website reviews for Astronomy magazine for a few years. During that time I co-authored a piece on Cosmos and Sagan with Adolf Schaller, one of the artists who worked on the series. Even luckier still, I was able to speak to Ann Druyan on the phone. From all I know of Sagan, had he been alive at the time, it probably would have been him I'd spoken to since he often took the time to write back or speak to those who took the time to respond to those who contacted him

Pale Blue Dot is a superb book

Favourite film, Blade Runner, as quoted in my signature below

__________________
"The stars are my home"
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."