I've always been curious about problems. Problems of all kinds.
I find myself wanting to understand them... and perhaps even to solve them. But I'm even more interested in what they reveal, where they lead, and what new terrain they might usher us into if we let them.
Because sometimes what presents itself as a problem is actually a symptom.
And when we solve it only at the level of the symptom, even a very good solution can leave the underlying condition untouched.
So the problem persists.
Or maybe it disappears for a little while.
Or, more intriguingly, it shape-shifts. We solve one problem only to discover another appearing somewhere else, perhaps looking entirely unrelated to the first.
Take, for instance, someone who keeps finding herself overwhelmed at work. She changes jobs, hoping a less demanding environment will solve the problem. Six months into the new position, she's overwhelmed again.
Maybe she's had extraordinarily bad luck with employers.
But maybe the job wasn't the whole problem.
Which leaves me pretty sure that there's a useful distinction between solving a problem and resolving one.
Sometimes solving is exactly what is called for. If a pipe bursts, obviously you fix the pipe.
But human problems are often less obliging...
A recurring conflict.
A pattern we can't seem to break.
A problem in our work life that follows us right into our next job.
A relationship dynamic that somehow reappears with a completely different person.
An organization that solves one crisis only to find itself confronting another version of the same type of crisis six months later.
These are the problems that especially interest me. The ones that seem to contain more than they first reveal. Because a problem can be an aperture. A portal leading us into something we haven't yet seen. Sometimes, if we turn and look again, there is something else there. Something more.
Sometimes the problem is precisely where the trail begins.
So alongside the perfectly legitimate question of:
How do we solve this?
I find myself asking:
What is this problem showing us?
And perhaps more importantly:
What is the problem beyond the problem?
🗝️🌀
Love + Oneness,
Naomi
