The big problems

There may be a lot of problems in life, our own and those concerning the outside world - overwhelming to the extent that it’s difficult to know what to concentrate on first, how best to use our energy on them. Our priorities are probably best determined by our own interest. If we’re overweight we’ll want to thin down and likewise if we’re claustrophobic we might want to liberate the imprisoned. My claustrophobia drives me to want to liberate animals. If you love trees you’ll rescue forests. If your heart’s breaking at the thought of kids without food in their stomach then that’s your celebrated cause (especially when you’re sitting there feeling bloated after a huge meal).
“I must do something about this”.
Whatever problems we choose to concentrate on, it’s never going to be easy; always challenging. But there are two sides to challenge. There’s the apparent unsolve-ability which we have to handle, and then there’s the slim chance of finding a solution. Perhaps it’s this glimmer of hope (or is it optimism?) which is forever fascinating. The dullness of everyday, going to work, routine expectations, grinding ugliness - they’re represented by ‘problems’ which appear, and we cut our teeth on them. We learn how to solve them, to throw light on the deeper causes, etc. - in our minds we explore not just our own personal problems but the bigger problems, ‘out there’. That ‘big’ projection is what most of us are trying to get a handle on.
Each problem, anything from a personal quarrel to having a toothache, painful though it is at the time, is really just a little battle ground, laid out before us, to test our metal. Some of the gigantic world problems, no different to smaller personal ones, are there to test our decision-making abilities. I hate seeing chickens in cages, so I have to face not eating eggs as well as trying to abolish cages. You hate war, so you don’t join the army, but promote peace, etc.
Isn’t it true that we learn best from practical experience, almost as if we have to go through the pain of the problem to experience the mistake, to lead us to the solution? We stab at things to solve them. Or we fail to solve them and in the failing we see how certain ‘solutions’ can’t possibly ever work … and that guides us to eventually solving the much bigger problem. And isn’t the genius of humans our ability to spread out the evidence, gather it and solve problems by it? But another aspect of our genius is to see ‘the bigger picture’. (Young children in all their innocence and naivety and uncluttered-ness have no trouble seeing it). As adults, we don’t necessarily want to solve ALL problems, just the ones that concern us. And that small-view of the world is the human being at his or her own ineffectual and meddling worst. The narrow approach, the tight, anally-retentive approach (mean and stingy, frightened and stiff) fixes things just for the moment. It doesn’t touch on the practical solutions for the future. We often won’t see the ‘bigger’ picture because we’re so determined to focus first on personal problems (and we may never progress past this point). Personal stuff haunts us ... and so we leave the ‘bigger problems’ of the world, “for another day”. The overwhelmingness of it all stops us taking serious measures. The bigger problems (global issues) are just as immediate though. They stare us in the face, daily, just like our own private ‘hauntings’.
This (BIG) ‘picture’ we form in our mind and it’s daunting as well as inspiring. It requires us to act ... erm ... better sooner than later ... and that’s scary. But isn’t the trick of it all not to be afraid to look at it? Not to get too caught up in the thorny-ness of it. Not to be overwhelmed by it, but simply to look at it metaphysically, as if the problem is talking to us?