They were upset, in other words, by abstractions. They were upset by things they would not have even known about, if it was a war in Asia 200 years ago that didn’t concern Americans.
Here is my question: to what extent is it healthy and responsible to allow yourself to be upset by large global events over which you have no control?
Self evidently Trump Derangement Syndrome makes a lot of people very, very unhappy. It seems to ruin them. They obsess about this President, even though they have not met him, will most likely never meet him, and even though his policies likely don’t affect them any way but positively, in the sense of being globally good for the American economy.
Or take the abstractions of death and pain, which we all know must come to us someday. If they are not here yet, should we allow them to upset us? To fracture our happiness, and rupture our tranquility?
And obviously there are at least two questions here: 1) Should we allow it? and 2) Could we stop it if we chose to? The latter question of course connects to the substance of the Buddhist method, which contains both ideas and concrete calming practices; although I should add in that regard that all religions serve to calm and comfort their adherents in times of doubt and pain.
Faith tells you it all works out. Manifestly, it doesn’t all work out here, on this Earth. Men that Obama was supporting in Syria took a hacksaw to an 8 year old girl and cut off her arms and legs. I have more than once tried to imagine what sort of person would be capable of something like that. I can’t get there. But things did not work out for that girl or, presumably, her mother and father, who were likely already dead.
I’m just talking out loud here. I’m not saying anything new or particularly interesting, but these are perennial questions, for which all of us can come up with different answers across a lifetime.
And I won’t offer an opinion. I just don’t know.
Maybe some things we should worry about, and others we should let go. If you lose sleep over all the evil in the world, you won’t sleep. Ignorance is bliss. At this moment, for example, I don’t know how many wars are happening in Africa, how many people starving, how many people suffering slow deaths from AIDS. I could inform myself, but to what end? What can I do? I do Kiva loans and will occasionally pay for a year of schooling for some girl in Afghanistan, but that is not much. I guess I should do more loaning anyway. It’s not much to me, but everything to some people.
I think I might stipulate a principle, though, that where individuals are concerned, everything is never close to enough. Mother Teresa, as one obvious example, gets many but not all diseased people in Calcutta. But she isn’t in Cairo, or Damascus, or Uganda. There is too much misery in this world for any one person.
The more I read, the more I think, the more I like the Tao Te Ching. There is nothing dogmatic in there. It says there is a Way. It is hard to find, most people never find it, and this too is the Way of the universe. Don’t sweat it. It says to renounce sainthood, but I think I am safe in saying that Lao Tzu would have counseled all of us to be considerate and courteous in our everyday dealings with all the people in our lives. That is a good start, and farther than many people get.
I’m rambling. I do that.