blind to the world

Usually I'm the last person to know anything about everything. Sometimes my friends know more about my life than I do. I am usually the last person to know the inside word, so I try to correct that by getting au courant with worldly events.
This is why I downloaded the CNN app for iPad, so I can read snips of news about the world so I know things without having to click on the hashtag on Twitter to find out what the whole world is talking about. But most of the time, news is nothing to throw daisies and frolic about. It's usually sad, depressing, horrific, alarming, or upsetting in some form or another. It's not something to read if you are already sad, depressed, horrified, alarmed, or upset. Not to knock CNN, but news is pretty down in the dumps. But I guess it's true of all news stations and websites and such. Bombings and attacks here, public riots and famine there. Everyday we are pelted with information, none of which is good.
The debt ceiling. The oil spill. Political arguments. Tsunamis. Hurricanes. Famine. Overpopulation. Trafficking. Murder. Starvation. Obesity. Stock market nosediving. Diseases and pandemics. Massacres. Terrorist attacks. Dwindling money. Unemployment. Human rights issues. Inequality. Pollution. Racism. Corruption. Rising sea levels. Deterioration of foreign relations. Hasty judgments. The impending apocalypse.
So the last one was a little melodramatic, but you get the idea. These are only a tiny fraction of the issues the world faces everyday without ceasing. And we hear about it everyday. We talk about it, and since we are humans, we feel. We feel for the people dying of famine and heat stroke. We feel for the puppies in puppy mills who are waiting on death row. We feel for the victims of natural disasters, corruption, and abuse. We feel for those who must make tough decisions. We feel for those who meander in the street at night trying to find a warm place to sleep. We feel for the people who can't pay their bills and face foreclosure. We feel for the people made fun of, teased, and for those who become victims of bullying. We feel for the trees and animals killed everyday to feed our greed for more.
We could be plagued with things like this, but really, if you can read this right now, you are better off than pretty much everyone that these issues apply to. If you are in a comfortable house with enough money to live the way you want and you have a computer to read this, you are better off than anyone struggling enough to make the next CNN headline.
But if we get too caught up in this, we can't be happy. We can't be naive and think that we live in a happy world, because there is a lot of unrest and problems in the world, as you can see. But we can be informed and also live our lives. We can live our lives the way that we were blessed. We got a great chance at a great life, and while we can feel for the people, animals, and others who are affected daily with hardships, we can also live our lives happily, with the people we love. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.