Hello Dan!

I can’t say what you should do, and I’m certainly no expert on the Buddhist philosophy, but I can tell you my own approach. Mind you, I also still get upset about certain things, but it’s not that much.

First of all, have you noticed that when reading about any news story and then reading the comments, the comments are mostly really aggressive and negative? It seems that this is a problem for a lot, if not most, people; we all get worked up about things and then only see the negative aspects and start to attack others in our despair, only making things worse, or at least not really making things any better. If I feel like I would get too involved in that, I simply choose to not read the comments from others. It’s only going to get me more upset. There’s this quote I’m going to have to paraphrase as I don’t remember it exactly, but it was about not getting sucked into other people’s drama, but to pull them into your peace. If a person is yelling, then why get involved, when you can just be quiet and wait for the situation to pass.

You can’t change the world, only yourself, and in my opinion, we are all here to learn. That learning process unfortunately seems to mostly happen through suffering. That’s what I remind myself when I come across something that’s disturbing to me. I also see the people who do bad things as lost souls, who just don’t know any better. It’s the pain and fear that causes people to do bad things and create more pain and fear. I don’t want to add to that, so I try to respond with peace and calmness and love and compassion. If I get angry and aggressive, then I’m adding to the amount of fear in this world. “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Interestingly, I don’t seek happiness anymore. Happiness, just like sadness, is always going to be a passing moment. I seek balance and peace. Everything else comes and goes. I guess that helps as well when looking at the state of the world. I can’t hold onto the feeling of happiness, and if I try, that would ironically make me sad. So allowing things to be and happen is quite important as well.

I see a lot of beauty in you and even in your predicament. You care. Caring is painful because of how this world works, but it is a beautiful sentiment. Cherish that and protect yourself by making choices that do not harm you.