Unsolvable Problems

I am realizing more and more as time moves along that there are many problems associated with every part of the human experience that are simply unsolvable. There is an old saying that contains a lot of wisdom about the circumstances of life that says " what cannot be changed must be endured".

Every day we are forced to endure many things, and for the most part they are not endured with the understanding, they cannot be changed. So I have to ask the question, is it better to face each day with blissful optimism, only to be disapointed with reality as it unfolds in our our lives, than to begin and end each day, knowing that we have no control over improving many of the situations we are confronted with. Most of us seem to choose a path somewhere in between and accept what happens on a daily, weekly, yearly and in most instances for a lifetime without any kind of self determined strategy to bring measured joy to ourselves and others. .

Dr. Phil identifies on a regular basis, a habitual failing with most people that describes how we take action to solve the adversity in our lives, its a simple saying, "hows that workin for ya" is one of his favorite and earthiest bits of wisdom . He is of course reffering to what action we take to solve the personal or interpersonal issues that bring us unhappiness or frustration. What he is saying, is that lemming like, we take a plunge over a cliff each day with a smile on our face, that is until the last moment, when the ground gives way beneath our feet and whoa !! its happening again, we're stuck in Groundhog day.

What he is reffering to is the fixable things in our lives and how we don't utilize learnable strategies to turn the situations around. But I find it somewhat depressing is that there is a heck of a lot of things going on that can't be fixed, and when you realize that in spite of all the good intentions in the actions we undertake and in the actions of others, some things are doomed to eternal failure.

One of the big things going on that can get me down when I dwell on it, and I think of all the suffering that takes place there is the situation in gaza. I don't know why that should be on my mind anymore than the even worse situations in place like, Somalia, The Congo or Zimbabwe, I guess its just that it is the news more.

Self interest is in the midst of every situation and when it is combined with shortsightedness and a propensity to ignore the effects upon others we find a world filled with human misery . Self interest is present in everyone even Mother Theresa, but thank God not to the same degree in us all, which does leave the tiniest sliver of optimism that although we can't solve every problem, at least in some situations a degree of civility will somehow make its way to the surface and we can create at least a hairline of separation between ourselves and the beasts of the jungle, but too many can't or won't control the urge to place self first. Its a spin off from original sin and the root of most of the despair in the world, but sometimes there are even a bigger force at work.

During the recent strife in Gaza I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what the moves would be to bring some kind of resolution to that conflict and to clearly form some opinions that might give me a clue as to what the best possibilities could be. Its a complex issue and when you try and identify the factors driving the passion of the combatants on each side be prepared for a long list. The problem is that when you start heaping the grievences on the two sides of the scale it eventually collapses over the sheer size of the wrongs that each side can compile. The standard line of thinking in the West and in the more moderate Arab states is that this has been precipitated by Hamas by its continual firing of rockets into Israel since 2005 when they took control of the Gaza strip, and Israel has every right to respond militarily to protect their citizens against this act of aggression. But the Palestinians and their allies put the case forward that the nation of Israel as created by the United Nations after the Second World War is on Palestinian land and they have no right to be there. You would think that after 60 years they would have been able to come to some kind of reasonable agreement to preserve peace and allow peoples on both sides to live in some kind of harmony together. Finally I have come to the conclusion that the situation in the Middle east is an "unsolvable problem".

There is no definitive starting point that can be agreed upon from which negotiations can begin, and without it, both sides are doomed to positions of self proclaimed and deeply felt righteousness. A lot of effort is being put into it but in the end nothing is going to work and self interest and something even more powerful will continue to drive the conflict.

The root cause seems to come from the question,Who owns the land? But you can't solve this without determining, when was ownership established and what is the authority that makes the ownership legitimate? If you have a desire to give yourself a massive headache and waste a large portion of your life then proceed to try and figure that one out. I gave it a bit of a try and found myself wound up with the Amelikites, Hittites, Assyrians, Philistines, Turks, Romans, Crusaders, Refraims, Amorites, Zumins, Emims, Shinarites, Elasarites, Israelites, Samaritans, Mamraites, Greeks and a hundred others who possessed and claimed all or part of the land at one time or another. My best guess would be that there are about 500 clans, tribes, warlords and nations that are involved in the Arab - Israelite dispute.

But if we think about it, whats the difference between the situation in the Middle East and that of every other land mass that people occupy throughout the world. The difference is that most nations somehow figured it out, and in many cases from a history that is even more complex than what we find in the Holy Land. The Middle east should be a piece of cake compared to what the situation in China was, with hundreds of dialects, kingdoms and religions to pull together but somehow they did it. Europe wasn't much different and although they didn't consolidate into one nation they somehow have come together as a community of nations after exhausting the options of having one dominant force. I have come to a conclusion, Societies, individuals, groups, clans etc that live in close proximity to each other, can find success, and peace, and harmony, by putting their individual self interests aside and reaching compromises. Those living in close proximity to each other that remain entrenched behind their self interest positions are condeming themselves and others to lives of chaos.

I resolved the problem for myself by taking a look in the bible and discovering the answer is as old as time. and is found in the book of Genesis. It seems that the situation is continuing to unfold exactly as it is always been. When God determined that Ishmael was to be borne by Hagar and become the father of the Arab nation he came into the world with a pronouncement from God.

The angel of the LORD said to Hagar, "Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.

He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone's hand will be against him;

And so it has been for thousands of years and will continue to be until the end of time, an"unsolvable problem" as defined by human standards.

Erins Drivers License

I'll just leave the story about me getting my drivers license.

So the system is like this, take a drivers ed course, get tested to make sure you are not blind, can read signs, answer questions, take a written test, wait a year to get a drivers test, then for the first time you have a license graduated restrictions are put on you for a year. Not quite like it was when I got my license, how times change.

When I was 18 I woke up one morning and as it was raining, couldn't get any farm work done, so out of the blue I called the Government in Wilkie and said I wanted to get my drivers license, Ok they said come on in, so i trekked off to Wilkie located the office and got parking spot right in front of the door. I went in told them what I wanted and someone set me down at a desk gave me a paper with a bunch of driving questions on it and said "answer these and then give me the paper back". Seemed simple enough, I finished, turned it in she checked off the answers and said "good, that will be three dollars". I produced the money and she did her thing and gave me a slip of paper with my name on it.

Great I thought until I looked at it and it said - beginners permit, "wait a minute" I said "I wanted my drivers license". "Oh" she said, "well now that you have your beginners permit you can learn to drive" but I replied "I already know how to drive, I've been driving for a long time. I came in for the driving test. "How did you get here" she asked "I drove" I said, "but you can't drive without a license" she responded, "I know" I said, "tha'ts why I came in, to get one. "Well how are you getting home" she asked, "drive" I said, "but you can't drive unless someone who has a license is with you" "really" I said "I came in by myself, my parents were busy". We had hit an impasse.

She went and talked with a guy who came out to see me, "I want to take my driving test now " I told him, "OK lets go" he said. We settled into the car, I started it up and began to back out of the angle parking spot. "That's enough " he said " pull back in". I guess he must have been in a hurry because we never went for the test drive. I have to admit I was kind of disappointed because before I had left to come into town I had had set up a barrel about 30 feet behind the tractor and practiced parallel parking, I wouldn't have minded showing off.

Anyway the girl asked me for another 3 dollars for my license and I tried arguing I had already paid once and didn't want the beginners permit anyway, I felt it was very unfair because I had only had it for 10 minutes, but she wouldn't budge. That was my first introduction to bureaucratic rules, but at least I got my license.

I wonder how my neighbour Susan Mann would make out today if she went in and told them she had been driving a 3 ton truck with 15,000 pounds of grain in the back for her father since she was 11 by sitting on a box placed on the seat. She had to sit on the box to be high enough to see out the windshield but had to slide off it to get close enough to the floor to reach the clutch to shift gears and she used a stick to control the gas. I'm guessing Roger would have had a warrant issued for his arrest, Social Services would have been notified to remove her from the home and a counsellor would have been contacted to get her into therapy for the trauma she suffered.

How times have changed.