Can reducing suffering be pursued in a healthy and inspiring way?

Some may assume that working to reduce suffering must be a joyless, tedious pursuit. This reaction is understandable. If we focus on the worst forms of suffering, we will confront things that may make us sad or fearful. We may come to appreciate just how much suffering exists and how grim things are for far too many beings. And we may reflect on how difficult it often is to reduce suffering, making the task feel like an uphill battle. Thinking about this can be difficult, frustrating, and emotionally draining. [...] 

Once upon a time, meaning and purpose didn’t need to be found—they found us. The task was survival: keeping warm, finding food, keeping the wolves and the raiders at bay. Purpose was immediate, physical, undeniable. Today, for many of us in rich, secure societies, the wolves are gone, replaced by hums and screens. The fridge is full, the house is warm, the algorithm knows our taste in movies. Comfort has triumphed over scarcity, security over danger, yet somehow many of us remain restless, anxious, and lost.

When purpose fades, the mind improvises. We are built to struggle, so we shrink our battles until they fit our circumstances. In the absence of famine, Wi-Fi outages become crises. Without invading armies, we wage moral wars on social media. Office politics turn into trench warfare. The human animal needs adversity to feel real, so when the old dragons die, we invent new ones—tiny, ridiculous, imaginary. [...]