
Originally Posted by
Honkey_Kong
Maybe busting his back in the field all day everyday gave him purpose, meaning and made him feel like his life was fulfilled? Depression is your body telling you something is wrong. If you're getting fulfillment, purpose and meaning in your life, why would you feel depressed? Nothing would be wrong in your life.
I think a lack of fulfillment and purpose is a driving factor in people becoming depressed. We try to mask it with drugs, but really the dead-end jobs we find ourselves in, the nagging ungrateful wives that we "settled" for, the high amounts of debt that force us to be stuck in our dead-end jobs. Not to mention being a slave to a drug and alcohol habit. These are all contributing factors that can make anyone feel depressed over time.
A life change from that to a simple hard life might be exactly what the doctor ordered. And it sounds like for your grandpa, his simple hard-working life there made him happy and fulfilled.