Photo by Richard C. Miller, shot with 120mm film using a twin-lens Rollie.

James Dean has a Quixote moment in 1955
on the set of Giant in Marfa, Texas.
He never saw that movie.

Shortly before he was killed in a highway accident,
he recorded the following:

Ritalin is a stimulant to normal people but acts as a depressant when given to a hyperactive child. The book of Ecclesiastes is like that. I’ve been fascinated by it all my life.

Ecclesiastes is depressing to a person in high spirits, but when I’m feeling dark, it lifts me out of my gloom. Here’s an example from Chapter 8:

“For every matter there is a time and judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly. For he does not know what will happen: so who can tell him when it will occur? No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no release from that war.”

See what I mean? It says: Nothing really matters because you’re going to die. And so is everyone else. So the thing that has you down is really no big thing, see?

Like I said, it only works if you’re feeling depressed.