Can we be happy when the news does not go our way? Do we allow the news to determine our happiness and serenity?
For an addict, to lose serenity is to put oneself astride the precipice.
If you think everything looks bleak, you’re thinking about the wrong things. How about thinking about the things you can control, such as what you read, watch and listen to?
If you get depressed by the news, you are out of touch with reality, because you have no control over the news, ergo, you can only ask God to grant you serenity over the things you cannot change.
If you get elated by the news, you are out of touch with reality. If you get depressed by the news, you are out of touch with reality. These are all things out of your control and allowing things out of your control to control you is a bad idea.
I’m writing this primarily to myself because a lot of news lately has been bad.
I usually don’t check the news until I am almost three hours into my day.
I notice that when I react to the news, I tend to over-react. I want my reactions to the news to be as gentle as wind blowing through the leaves.
Whenever I am upset, it means that there is some part of reality that I am denying.
I don’t like it that the Supreme Court ruled against Trump on DACA. But there’s nothing I can do about that. I have no idea of the implications of the ruling. And I don’t know the law as I’m not a lawyer. It seems like a bad and stupid ruling to me but I don’t know much.
I am sure that for some people some of the time, rage is a powerful motivating factor in doing good. I don’t think most people most of the time, however, can use rage productively.
