Does it feel like the world is just coming apart at the seams? Feeling anxious? Afraid? Worried about what’s coming? Well, relax. Seriously. It might not feel like it, but things are pretty damn good right now. It’s a great time to be alive.

According to the Washington Post, since 2015, there have been 658 deaths due to terrorism in 46 attacks in Europe and the Americas. Globally, in that same period there were 28,031 deaths in 2063 attacks. For the families of the victims, it was tragic indeed, and I don’t want to minimize that, but bear with me while I offer a few other numbers for some perspective.

The Battle of Gettysburg alone took more than 51,000 lives. In World War I, the Gallipoli campaign took over 470,000 lives. In World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad claimed over 1.2 million lives (the conservative estimate).  I could keep tossing out numbers and statistics, but that’s dull. Let’s go on a little time travel thought experiment instead.

If you were a man living in England in the 1460s, you would likely be a peasant, eking out a living off the land, shorter than the average man today because your nutrition would be so poor. You probably had rotten teeth and fleas. You might also have been swept up in the so-called “Wars of the Roses,” a civil war fought over the English succession. You might have been conscripted to fight on whatever side your local lord favored.

If you were a woman living in that same time period in Europe, you might have found yourself accused of witchcraft for the simple reason of having a mole in the wrong place. Or maybe your neighbor’s cow died. Or whatever. It didn’t take much. Thousands of women were tortured and murdered by church authorities in horrific ways too gruesome to describe here.

If you lived a few hundred years earlier, you might have perished in the bubonic plague, which claimed an estimated 100 million lives, and wiped out entire villages. The plague still exists, but it’s now a treatable bacterial infection. It’s not the devil. It’s just bad hygiene. Aren’t you glad to know that?

If you lived in west Africa in the 1700s, you might have found yourself on a slave ship, headed for the Americas and a life of unspeakable misery. Actually, the whole idea of slavery being repugnant is a modern one. Throughout the ancient world, slavery was common, and if you had lived in pretty much any ancient culture, you could have easily been sold off to pay your family’s debts, or even better, if you were an Aztec, you might have been one of the 20,000 killed every year to appease the gods. Lucky you!!

If you were a young man unfortunate enough to live in the early 1900s, a mere 100 years ago, and found yourself on a battlefield in World War I, even if you survived your injuries, your chances of dying from infection were very high. No antibiotics. Sorry! If that didn’t get you, maybe the flu pandemic of 1918 would have. It claimed 50 million lives, mostly young and otherwise healthy people.

If you lived in China in 1960, you might have been one of the 15 million who died of starvation as a result of  Mao’s “Great Leap Forward.” Fifteen million people. Gone as a result of bad agriculture policy combined with authoritarian rule.

Get it?

Especially as a woman, I consider myself incredibly lucky to live in the industrialized West in the 21st century. I have access to food, education and medical care that my great-grandmother couldn’t even imagine. I can vote. I can get on a plane and travel the world. I have the knowledge of a thousand libraries in a device that I can hold in my hand (even if I do use it to watch cat videos). I have a roof over my head, and luxuries that royalty of centuries past could only dream of having (raspberries in January if I want!). I can keep in touch with friends and family around the world with the touch of a button. When it thunders, I don’t fear the wrath of Zeus. I delivered my three children safely, and all three grew to healthy adulthood. When my bad knee becomes intolerable, I’ll just have a surgeon swap it out for a replacement.

Damn. I really did win the lottery.

Of all the places and times to be born, right here and right now is pretty fantastic.

Yes, there are conflicts in the world, large and small. At the moment, Syria is especially tragic. We cannot forget this as we become aware of our own privilege and luck. We must continue to work for peace and justice on all fronts.

What we should not do is to lose perspective. I remember life before the internet. Yes, I’m THAT old. So, I’ve seen the world both pre and post internet. What the internet has done is to amplify the most extreme voices, the most violent voices, the most hateful voices, and to give them a way to spread hate that is disproportionate to their numbers.

For example, estimates of ISIS fighters number in the tens of thousands. That’s not a small number, but in a world of over 7 billion people and 1.6 billion Muslims. We fear them because their hateful acts show up over and over again in our social media as stories are circulated again and again. Pre-internet, those acts would have not gotten nearly the level of attention and publicity that they do today.

Chances are that the most dangerous thing you will do today is to drive your car. Statistically, you are far more likely to die in a car crash than in a terrorist attack or random shooting, but I’m betting you aren’t afraid to drive your car.

So relax. Unplug from the media. Ponder your incredible luck at living where and when you do. The world isn’t really coming apart at the seams. It just feels that way.

So, chin up, buttercup!! It could be a helluva lot worse.