Global warming, tropical hurricanes, floods, etc. The world climate is in trouble and we have corrupt idiots "leading" our country. It's hard sometimes to be optimistic, but the world has always had terrible troubles. Anyone who is interested in History knows that plagues, wars and all manner of catastrophies are the usual state of affairs. This makes me want to hold on to the ones I love and cherish beauty and the good things in life. It's a time for Art, if there ever was one! I look at the process as a meditation sometimes, but at other times it's more like perpiring or breathing. You do something persistently enough and it becomes the thing you do. It also develops into something bigger than yourself. Delusions of grandeur and other ego trips seem to loose their grip when the humble process of work goes on and on. We work, we try, we strive to do good work, as good as we can do. But it's the doing that is the spiritual thing.