the owl and the olive tree

Yeah, it's not really the same thing at all, given that much of my brain's depressive argument comes from an understanding of what it's like to do without. But I guess my point is that I can see pretty clearly that possessions do not cause unhappiness - they're just one possible scapegoat for it. I don't think it's strange that when people are unhappy, they will think it's caused by incredibly illogical things (depression has certainly taught me a lot about how nonsensical one's brain can get and subjectively appear to make sense). I hear what you're saying about self justification though.