Every problem has a meaningful message

Here is a story. A wealthy merchant from the east passed away. In his will, the man stated equally division of his wealth to three sons but his most treasured camels were divided in rather challenging way. According to the will the eldest son was to be given half of the camels, the middle son was to be given one third of the camels, and the youngest son was to be given one ninth of the camels. The merchant had seventeen cattle. As it was not possible to divide 17 camels into half, one third or even into one ninth. The three son started fighting with each other for their fair share of the camels.

Since the sons were not able distribute the camel among them, they went to a wise man for advice. The wise man patiently listened about the sons’ dilemma. After carefully understanding the situation the wise man brought one of his camels and added to the the seventeen camels of the merchant. That increased the total to eighteen (18) camels.

Now, he started reading the deceased father’s will and divided the camels. Half of eighteen is nine. So he gave the eldest son nine camels. One third of the eighteen is six, so he gave the middle son six camels. The youngest son got one ninth of the eighteen camels, so he gave him two camels. After giving nine, six and two camels to the sons, he successfully distributed seventeen camels. The wise man took back his camel.

The attitude of negotiation and problem solving is to find the 18th camel i.e. the common ground. Once a person is able to find the common ground, the issue is resolved. It is difficult at times. However, to reach a solution, the first step is to believe that there is a solution. If we think that there is no solution, we won’t be able to reach anywhere!

In essence a problem means, you desire something but you cannot get it. This is true from abstract problems to mathematical problems. If you ask a question that only means you think there is a solution to that. Otherwise you could not even ask that question. So philosophically every problem has a solution. There were problems we have solved and we now have problems we are getting close to a solution but there are even problems we are not aware of their existence.

About a century ago “how can I retrieve my lost password?” was not a problem in any person’s life but now we have them. Likewise we have so many new problems we don’t know yet. But from today’s perspective there are problems we can only approximate a solution. As we gather new information new alternatives emerge also our understanding of the problems change.

A person who has to arrive at a “correct” decision must weigh up all the known data and facts before them and arrive at the correct solution. Imagine if the calculations of an engineer building a bridge were slightly wrong. How many lives would be endangered. This has happened in the past. So certain tasks or problems do require a “correct” solution.

And pertaining to other problems in life such as psychological problems, etc. there may be no “correct’ solution, but a number of solutions. If a person approaches their problems with all the data and information they have to hand then makes an informed decision or choice they then hope for a solution to the problem or problems. In other words, with some problems, all one can do is the best one can do at that particular time with the available resources and information to hand. “I did the best I could at the time”. Cheers!