Today was an objectively good day. I had a great night’s rest, called my family, spent quality time with my partner, studied interesting topics, did some work, ate delicious food and even won a close volleyball game.

But even with these good days, my heart silently breaks at the injustice and suffering in the world. It breaks at the billions starving worldwide and the 600 million who live in extreme poverty. It breaks at the 700 million people who cannot read or write, who will be forgotten by history, and will never know a world outside theirs.

It breaks at the one million people who take their own life every year, the 20 million to attempt to, and the many more who suffer quietly in ways that people and numbers can never know.

It breaks at the cruelty of war and the spilled blood of innocent people. It breaks at the powerfully manipulative forces of religion, media, and cults, which promise connection and salvation, but often deliver division and pain. It breaks at the practices of racism, sexism and other -isms which lazily judge people by their group identity rather than the individual.

But maybe there is hope. Maybe there is hope in the power of human ingenuity, which has led to amazing feats like the lightbulb, electricity and mathematical questions that elegantly describe the world’s architecture. Maybe there is hope in the power of technology, which has given us the internet, the moon landing, and devices with unprecedented capabilities. Maybe there is hope in human expression, which has given us gifts of music, art, theatre and literature. Maybe there is hope in a deity, or time, or something greater than my understanding.

One time, I asked a Buddhist friend how he felt about injustice in the world. He said, “life is suffering,” and shrugged his shoulders. The first of the four noble truths. I remember how he smiled warmly at me. I remember thinking, “Maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s just how things are.”

But often, like tonight, it just doesn’t feel enough. It feels like we can do better than a that’s-how-things-are mentality – that we have a duty to better the planet we were placed on.

Perhaps we can only keep improving ourselves each day, one step at a time, until it’s our turn to change the world.