Depends what you mean, sometimes being absent from your mind is a good thing, especially if its constantly giving you trouble, although its not easy to do, I have done it once for at least 4 to 6 hours, where I really didn't think about anything and instead I identified with my consciousness, my essence, this is what yogis and mystics and all sorts of monks and advanced meditators have been doing for millennia. Yes of course we need our minds for things like cooking or working or creating, or problem solving, everything starts with a tought, but there is no mind but thought, thats all our minds are, just thoughts, many of us make the mistake of identifying with our thoughts, as 'me' but we are not our minds, the thing is to find out who we really are.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.