The big problems

608:

Our priorities are probably best determined by our own interest. If we’re overweight we’ll want to thin down, if we’re claustrophobic we might want to liberate the incarcerated. My own claustrophobia drives me to want to liberate animals. If you love trees you rescue forests, if your heart breaks at the thought of kids going without food, then you say, “I must do something about this”.

Whatever problems we choose to concentrate on, it’s always going to be a challenge. But there are two levels to any challenge - there’s the apparent unsolve-ability and the slim chance of finding a solution. We cut our teeth on intractable ‘problems’ and not only find solutions but in doing so we throw light on deeper issues. If, for example, I hate seeing chickens in cages, I have to face not eating eggs as well as trying to abolish cages. If I’m opposed to war I don’t join the army. But I don’t leave it at that, I go further and try to promote peace or advocate non-violence.

Isn’t it true that we have to go through the pain of a problem to see our shortcomings, our one dimensional thinking, and that finally leads us towards fuller solutions? Isn’t the genius of the human the ability to gather evidence and solve problems? But another aspect of our genius is to be selfless, and to be able to see far up ahead beyond our own lifetime, to see ‘the bigger picture’. The narrow approach solves the immediate problems, but we often won’t see the ‘bigger’ picture until we’ve shifted from personal interest to the interests of  the ‘greater good’.

Because humans have always been so determined to focus on personal problems, of ourselves, our family, our country, we’ve never really progressed past that point. The ‘bigger problems’ are left for another day. But could it be that the most daunting dramas force us to continually re-examine our problems, to get us over the hump, to inspire us to act sooner rather than later.

It might be scary, but isn’t the trick of it all not to be afraid to look at each problem that comes up? Here we have a whole world-population facing the results of violence, to each other, to animals, to the planet itself. This complex situation shows us, whoever we are, that we are in deep trouble, but it’s not for us to be put off by the thorny-ness of it, and not to be overwhelmed by it, but simply to look at it as if the problem is talking to us. We might be reluctant to learn the biggest of all lessons but if we apply ourselves to a thorough attitude of non-violence, well, the rest inevitably becomes obvious. Doesn’t it?