Problems/Solutions

Some thoughts on problem solving


All problems started as solutions.

When considering new solutions, it’s useful to start with considering the problem to be solved, specifically, what problem was this intended as the solution for?  

As a writing coach, I tell writers, before you go breaking the rules, understand what problem the rules are meant to solve. If you can find a better way to solve that problem, go for it!  Rules are made to be transcended!

“Spider-graph” main problems and secondary and tertiary problems. See the relationships between the problems and how that might change priorties in finding solutions, and how several problems might be addressed by a single solution. 

And you might want to check out this TED Talk from George Monbiot which offers a solution particulary relevant to these troublesome times.

“Under New Management”

Family, clan, tribe, city, state, nation… What comes next? And how soon is it coming? How soon before political entities have become obsolete as the drivers of human organization, and corporate entities take over the management of… well, everything?

In fact, are we now living through the turning of the tide, that terrible, turbulent time of old resisting the inevitable new.

The world right now is ‘blessed’ with an over-abundance of authoritarian heads-of-state, the worst kind of ‘leader’ who governs from personal agenda and impulse, who disregards the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry, who inflicts on them his/her own whimsy and caprice, and is in every way incompetent to do the actual job of governing. This kind of leader does not comprehend the differences between governing and controlling; between domination and dominion; between ownership and stewardship.

They rule with the support of those who think to gain personally from such an administration, who enable the tyrant while thinking to keep the tiger on a leash.

But this never ends well for anyone, because there are always The People, the massive base of the power pyramid, who reach their limit of acquiesence, of tolerance, even in societies with free speech that allow for the occasional venting off of building heads of steam. But the steam builds, even there, and people gather, and they look around and they do the basic math: There are more of Us than of Them. Lots more. The young do their own calculations: We will outlive you.

Righteous indignation grows to fury and hysteria. Then comes revolution, the unleashing of all the forces of chaos, panic, and the determination of the individuals, all millions of them, to survive no matter what.

Besides the Earth’s own reactions to the over-reaching of humankind, there are all these untenable regimes, unsustainable habits and assumptions, and the conservative tendency to resent change and cling to obsolete solutions to current problems: the old tide struggling to deny and resist the inexorable flood of the new. Call it catastrophe or course correction, or re-balancing, it is as inevitable as earthquakes in the Ring of Fire.

Vine Deloria Jr proposed the idea in the 1970s that corporations are tribal entities, and now, Kenichi Ohmae is saying that those tribes have grown to world-wide entities that will be taking over management overtly in the not-distant future. Nations will no longer be defined by geographic boundaries, but by economic interest and control.

Being non-human entities, these corporate nations will have no natural empathy or humanity: only that which the humans in positions to influence it may provide. Their basic interest will be their own viability. Hopefully, they will see what authoritarians do not: that the top of the pyramid needs the base of the pyramid to hold its position in the clouds.

www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kenichi-ohmae/the-end-of-the-nation-state/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_Deloria_Jr.

Don’t Touch!

This love’s a testy thing
bristled for defense
against the world
and pain:
we give up ground
for every gain–
we go around, around–
aground again…

My friend,
I see you there crouched
along the spiral’s inner curve;
I wish I could reach in
and touch your heart
but every nerve
you own is raw–
and intercepts
and shies
and strikes away
what seems to you
a grasping hand.


1990

It isn’t a crime…

but it should be.

The deliberate obstruction of the proper functioning of government. 

Malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance are all applicable, perhaps, but maybe it needs to be spelled out more specifically. 

Looking at you, McConnell!

You have flouted the clearly expressed will of the majority of the American people persistantly, usurping control of the Senate’s ability to do the job they were elected to do, making yourself a dictator over what issues can be voted on or not, according to your personal agenda.

You have abused the power of your office.

You have intentionally undermined and obstructed the democratic process in America. 

And this doesn’t even get into the treasons of your dealings with the Russian oligarchy.

I think it is important for the world to know that we, the sane and normal people of America, and some of the weird ones, too, deplore this current administration and live for the day we can vote it out of power, and call it’s perpetrators to account.

It is likewise important for the world to know, we also understand that your governments do not always represent or reflect your decency, your humanity, your good faith and good will towards other real people.

There has never been a time in the whole history of humankind when politicians truly spoke for their constituents, though the occasional statesmen have arisen and fought for those qualities of humanity and decency, good faith and good will, against the seekers of primarily personal wealth and power.

Love’s Not Always Pink

Love’s not always pink–
It’s what you feel and live
not what you think.
Sometimes it’s what you give
or are allowed to take
or nothing you can have
for someone else’s sake.

Love’s not always song–
its voice not always heard
or clear and strong.
Sometimes it’s just absurd
and makes no kind of sense
Or it speaks without a word,
has neither rhyme nor tense.

Love’s not always glee–
It has its moods and swings
and doesn’t always see.
Sometimes imaginings
turn into fear and doubt
or expectation clings
to dreams that can’t play out.

Love’s not always true–
a permanent romance
to nourish you.
Sometimes it is mischance
or timing’s never right
and only fine in sunshine
or only in the night.

Love’s not always whole,
Love doesn’t always win;
Sometimes it wounds the soul
and lets the darkness in,
yet love’s piercing dart,
breaks out as well
the bravest human heart.


2009, revised 2019

Raw: Summer Creek

Silt settles in the summer creek
over hard-wedged wood
and the largish stubborn stones
laid bright and bare
when vernal torrents raged:
ripped raw the bed,
tore out old banks,
walkways
and little bridges–
wild waters
shattered,
scattered…
Recut pathways
and the landscape
in the violence
of season’s change.

The sun is warm now glimmering
over the water where leafy branches
gaze and tease the eye:
The pebbles colorful in many shades
and striped in lights and darks
rest nestled in the silt
that settles ’round but does not yet
obscure them from the sun.
The satin ripples whisper
as they dance together–sunlight,
pebbles and clear-running stream.

I sit now by the summer creek
relieved that season’s passed,
soaking in the sunlight at my back,
and understanding now,
Springtime
meant no harm.

July 2011, revised 2019
photo also by CL Redding, 2011

Trolls

“Rudeness is the small person’s imitation of power.”

There is a troll who occasionally wanders to my posts here, and gives every one of them a one-star rating. This troll probably doesn’t actually read, just has a personal agenda that expresses itself in this petty way.

Please, when you read my posts, if, at the top you see the rating stars, please give me a fair rating for what you’ve read. Enough honest ratings will give me a better idea of what actual readers think of my writing, as they drown out the troll’s pettiness.

The one-star ratings don’t discourage me, I know my writing isn’t that poor. But they are a statement to potential readers that cast my efforts in an unfair light.

Thank you!

Lost

This morning as I woke
I recalled the day of sadness
I could not bring from memories
before her death
my mother’s face.

Not your face
but something of you
as essential and as dear
I cannot bring to mind today
and feel the rift
has widened now
beyond my strength to leap.

Though I can stand and gaze
a while longer
towards an empty shore.

2011