The world of President Obama was summed up almost perfectly in simultaneous segments of 60 Minutes Sunday.
The second story of the longtime newsmagazine was a heart-rending, sometimes brutal telling of the great human costs of the Syrian civil war as rebels fight the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Flash to the final story of the hour: an Anderson Cooper puff piece on "mindfulness," a Zen-like practice championed by "MIT-trained scientist" Jon Kabat-Zinn of "being present," doing such activities like brushing one's teeth "with awareness," and learning how "the mind has a life of its own. It goes here and there."
Cooper attended a three-day retreat with Kabat-Zinn where, as he puts it, "most of that time was spent just sitting there, silently meditating."
"There's so many different compelling studies that are showing that this not New Age gobbledygook," Kabat-Zinn said.
Meanwhile in Syria, we learn of Abdul Basset al-Saroot, a former secular Syrian youth soccer star-turned peace activist-turned armed revolutionary who has been forced to ally with the Islamists to fight the Assad regime. In one piece of footage, he begs Allah to let him die after being shot for a third time.
Back to mindfulness: Ohioans are no doubt delighted to hear Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) believes heavily in the process and obtained nearly $1 million of federal funding to teach it to young children in his district.
Back in Syria, where Obama has dithered on a "red line" and waited too long to arm and train the rebels, one of the most powerful images is that of a four-year-old boy named Omar, running through the streets of Homs and casually pointing out a regime sniper. This comes after he lays flowers at his father's grave.
Those stressful American problems of not living enough in the moment and having a wandering mind pale just a tad to the war zone that little Omar endures.