A take on finding happiness: spoiler, it's not easy.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT SOME READERS MIGHT FIND UPSETTING. PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
There are some things that seem to be completely out of our control. You feel like you haven't done anything out of the norm, nothing remotely wrong, but for some absurd reason you still suffer. You, with all your innocence, protest against it but no one seems to care. At least not enough to really do anything meaningful to help you out. This feeling may be painfully familiar for a lot of people. When you wrongfully get a parking ticket or when they get your order wrong. Again. Ouch. Was that too real? Well, reality can be much harsher. Imagine that your a forty one year old woman, with a five year old daughter and a caring husband. You, like any other would, take your little baby girl to meet your parents back home. Then you end up getting arrested for trying to topple a regime, you know, like you do.
A mother and her five year old plotting against a corrupt regime, nothing to see here, just another wednesday. Or perhaps you were eating dinner with your family, a rare occurrence in your house. There isn't usually enough food for you all to eat. You hear shouting and booms as the bombs drop, you try not to think much of it, nothing new just another tuesday. That is until, one hits your house. The roof tumbles down and then within a second everything is dark. A few hours later there's a light, two arms pull you out of the rubble you can't hear your own cries because you lost your hearing. You hold onto the only thing you have left, your stuffed toy. It's the only thing you will remember your family by, after all you're only nine.
Depressing enough? No? Hear me out, there's only two minutes left and your worried because you still have two questions left. You move your hand as fast as it goes, you can't fail this test. You hear loud noises, it isn't the fourth why are there fire crackers? The pen drops from your hand and the blood leaves from your face as you realise that those aren't firecrackers. The kids around you are rushing but they aren't screaming, they've prepared for this. The teacher locks the door, the kids put up the chairs against it. The lights go off and you all huddle towards the corner.
Some are texting their parents, you forgot to charge your phone. You squeeze your eyes close as you think of your little sister, she's in the other building, you hope the shooter didn't go there. Three hours later your standing in the cold, your parents are here too along with your little sister, thank god she made it. The shooter made a run for it but, you can't seem to care. The only thing on your mind are the lifeless eyes of your best friend. He didn't get to see the card you made for his birthday and he never will...
Deaths are seen as figures on your screen, data from which might be sold, that is if it hasn't already been hacked. There might mercury in your ice cream but we don't need to worry about that because the heat melted it away before you could even snap a pic for your insta, let alone actually eat it. You decide to post a selfie instead, alas all it got was negative comments so you try and look past them and go out to meet some friends. On the way back you notice a guy following you, it's dark so you make a run for it but, he's faster. Your lucky that some passer by interfered before things got too out of hand, unlike the woman you read about who got raped in broad daylight.
What was the point of these six hundred and twenty four words of depressing content? Chances are that you've already gotten your share of depressing content already. Whether you had to face it yourself, or if you read about it with your morning cup of joe, none of this information is new. That is the harsh truth about our world now, our standards have risen to unbelievable heights. For any news to actually gain attention it has to truly be something so despicable and vile that you can't believe it, or it could be about the kardashians new hunger reducing lollipop. Either way, it's not very pleasant. Humanity has become a complete disaster and there's nothing that people can seem to do about it. In a world like this how is one to ever continue on? How can anyone find any true happiness then?
Ignorance is bliss. That's how the saying goes, and it certainly is true. 'If one is unaware of an unpleasant fact or situation one cannot be troubled by it'. Then there is apathy, when you have knowledge but you simply couldn't give a damn. In other words, an intelligent disinterest. Both of these are seen as unadmirable, or even to an extent for the latter, unethical qualities to possess. A lot of the times it isn't in our hands, whether there is simply no way for us to gain this information or, if we are incapable of caring ie. sociopaths. But majority of the times it's a question of choice. The theory goes that in order to find happiness you could shield yourself from the true facts or you could be indifferent to all the troubles.
How can anyone continue to worry about the price of the tomatoes? You'd be petty if you still contnued to complain. Or laugh at the way their name is spelled on their starbucks cup? You'd be selfish if you still found happiness. But, isn't this just contributing to the problem? By spreading more hate wouldn't you just be further digging humanity's grave?
Perhaps we all should strive to meet the middle ground here. Ignorance is never good, however, apathy to an extent is quite common. We should be aware of these problems, we should care enough to make small or large changes in our own lives. However, we shouldn't let these problems consume us, at least not in a way that sends you down the road of depression. I know all this is easier said than done, but there's never any harm in trying, except when there is.