If you read the news then it seems the world is one hot mess: planes crashing, corrupt politicians, global warming, the usual election year doomsday scenarios; disease and doom, an insane world.

But Attitude Media publisher John F. Groom is traveling around the world right now, and we see it very differently. Thus far he’s been in New York, Dubai, India, Singapore, and Indonesia. He’s been in rich places and poor places, huge cities, and smaller towns.

In India, the traffic is madness; yet we never saw anyone curse at another driver, or lose their cool. People talk about globalization and creeping sameness, but Singapore is nothing like India, which has little in common with Bali, Indonesia. Are workers paid too little in Dubai? Probably, but it’s a very safe, clean place providing employment to hordes of people from lower income countries.

Everywhere we go some things stay the same; parents nurturing children, children laughing, and people going about their business. And we see human creativity wherever we go; in New York, an old railroad track becomes the famous High Line park. In Singapore, Gardens by the Bay is a beautiful, and environmentally sound, massive solar powered botanical garden. In India even women of modest means wear colorful clothes made from amazing textiles.

In Dubai everything is huge and new; and, like Dubai Mall, beautiful. There is stunning architecture being built around the world; Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and the world’s tallest building in Dubai are just two examples. And some older buildings have been restored to great beauty, like the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.

Wherever we’ve been, we’ve generally found people to be overwhelmingly kind and polite.

Sure, the world has plenty of problems. But if you want to stay sane, put down the news on your phone, get in a plane, and look around. It’s actually quite an interesting and sane world out there.