Problems

There will always be more than one way to look at a problem. You may look at the problem through a different filter. You may examine the problem in a different light. You may look at it in a mirror. Sometimes simply letting your eyes go out of focus will cause the problem to stand out in brighter relief. A problem is part of a pair that also includes a solution. Some problems are solved, and may thereby be resolved. Some are never solved, which may be for better or for worse.

All individuals face numerous problems in their lives. Problems big and small; important or insignificant; interpersonal or within the individual. Our greatest challenge is recognizing the existence of the big, important problems. This is easier said than done.

Many of us are plagued in life by a swarm of problems. We may understand that they are all related to each other in some way, but that understanding gets us no closer to seeing the essential problem itself.

This is where I find myself in this end-game of my life. We seniors live from day to day, waiting to die. Waiting for our turn. We dream of dead friends and family, and are cursed to live in the ruin that we have made of our life. Our decades of experience may give us some perspective regarding our problems. Identifying a problem when it is too late to fix it is much worse than never having identified the problem at all.

Here is a good question: is a problem that is never identified really a problem at all?

Life’s greatest joke might be to provide us with the intelligence needed to identify the important problems in our lives, while denying us the cleverness that would be required to solve them.