If the narrator is making bad decisions or deliberately trying to get people hurt then he is in a bad/poor mental state.
Dickinson's style is rigid but defies expectations in both style and content. While Whitman's flowing, carefree, hippie-like
A gerund phrase consists of the gerund and its complements. A gerund is a word that takes the verb form -ing, but functions as a noun. In the given sentence above, the gerund phrase is "crying about our problems". It is used as the subject of the sentence. The gerund in the gerund phrase is the word "crying".
The author is basically saying that the issue has become a peaceful debate