http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=loscuadernos-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002HRE2KI&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrI recently came across this phrase by G. K. Chesterton:
“The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong“.
I have a lot of American readers, all of whom, I am sure, are wonderful and not at all ideal people, whom I would like to send my greetings on the Independence Day. However, the phrase sums up much more than just the British reservations about the Americans at the turn of the 19th-20th cc. The phrase underlines our approach to just about anything, but especially problems.
It is a totally normal thing among humans to exaggerate, particularly when something bad is happening. Something I read recently points out to a very interesting thing: although we’re advised to “know thyself”, most often it is our negative self that we know the best. Indeed, the majority of you reading this post are likely to eagerly to admit to some of their worst traits than openly appreciate their good qualities.
Now, imagine having about a problem. Taken on its own, it is neutral. A few instances in life have led me to believe that someone will always have had – or is having – a worse problem than me, so, objectively speaking, a problem is just a problem. It is when we put a spin on it that it becomes THE problem – an emotional event of universal proportions, with a catastrophic impact.
If you let your mind do this, then before too long a tiny inconvenience becomes a disaster, while something bigger grows astronomically to the point when you don’t know how on Earth to deal with it. This is how a real problem becomes an Ideal Problem, with the whole tragedy attached.
What we need to remember henceforth is that the ideal problem is always a far cry from the problem at hand. however bad it may be. A real problem can always be dealt with; but just as one cannot attain the ideal in real life, so one cannot ever solve an ideal problem – because it is out of human capacity to cope with the ideal.
So, next time we’re having problems in life, let;’s make ourselves a favour and not blow it out to monstrous proportions. Whatever it may be, let’s deal with it as it is, not as our media-conditioned hype-sensitive unconscious mind suggests us.