EVS Blog

My very good friend has a problem. The problem isn’t that he spends more than he makes; that’s merely a symptom. His problem is that he wants to own and control everyones problems. He wants to say “I provide for the poor. I help the needy. I heal the sick. People turn to me instead of the Almighty, therfore I am the Almighty God.”

Fortunately for all of us, he isn’t God. He’s a common Joe. A Joe with high aspirations and a larger than average checkbook.

Here’s the neat thing about problems; the “power of one” cannot solve problems. Problems are specifically designed to be bigger than any one person. When a person gets cancer, their family, friends, neighbors, etc. gather around to help them. The problem is too big for one person to handle and we, as compassionate human beings, know this so we gather to help the person suffering.

My friend tries to solve the worlds problem with money. What he doesn’t realize is that a problem doesn’t have a price tag, it’s not that easily beaten. If you give someone in need money, you do a good deed. When that person relies on you for money and you give it to him every time, your good deed is undone; you are now an enabler.

Why is all of this neat? Because the solution to the problem requires you (not the generic ‘you’, I mean ‘you’ the reader) to vest in the problem. You have to engage it, wrestle with it, join others to tie it up and together, destroy it. If you could throw money at a problem, maybe a few governmental regulations and the problem goes away, how would we as people reach our full potential?

Every one of us has unique gifts and passions. You are given these gifts and passions (or compassions) to help you fulfill a purpose. Some of us are compassionate for the elderly, others for the homeless, others for higher eduction. Some have a gift for generating money (like my friend), others their talent is stretching a dollar to it’s fullest extent (not like my friend). When you put people with multiple talents and passions together to solve a problem, that problem doesn’t have a chance of surviving.

If we have all of these gifts and passions among us, why are we willing to turn a blind eye to problems? Why is there still a homeless person in our community? Why is the old bridge in town about to collapse? Why is there a teen who cannot read? Is it because we are independent, self-centered Americans? Or is it that problems seem too big for us and only something big (like our government) has the ability to solve them?

A few years ago, my sisters sister-in-law found out that their son had Duchenne’s Disease; a type of Muscular Dystrophy. Without going into details, they are essentially going to watch their beautiful son slowly and painfully deteriorate until he finally can’t breathe on his own. What did they do? The mom and dad set up a foundation and have been tirelessly (and I mean outrageously tirelessly) raising awareness of the disease and doing fund raisers for research to stop the disease (see www.joainc.org). The parents took ownership of the problem and are taking ownership of the solution. The problem is larger and heavier than Mt. Everest, but the parents can only see victory.

Does it take something so unimaginably horrifying to happen to someone that close to us to engage and vest in a problem in our community?

So, to my very good friend, I say this to you (BTW, you may know him, he lives in the White House (Washington DC)). All of the problems of the country and the world do not rest on your shoulders. And the problems that are under your charge cannot be solved simply with more money or more regulation. If you give and keep giving until people rely on you, you are an enabler, not a God.

My advice to you is to back off of the controls and as a leader, encourage your people to use their talents and passions to solve problems. Expect people to rally their communities to help one another. The solution is in the individual realizing his unique calling alongside another individual realizing her unique calling, along a community of people realizing their unique calling. Where your resources are finite (like money), the resources of the masses are infinite, they just need to be stirred.

For you, my readers, the current debt ceiling debate in Washington does not need to be a life or death event; rather it is an opportunity for We the People to wake up. Whether DC is in grid lock or running at full blown in-efficiency, our problems are ours to own and ours to solve.

To depend on and stand in line for the Great Enabler is bondage, choosing to join with your fellow man and solve problems is freedom. What is your passion or compassion? In that you will find your part of the solution to any problem.

The solution to any issue will always be We the People, not they the government.

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Note 1: I received a surprising number of comments on my ‘friend’ – one person asked if he was a “drunken sailor distant cousin.” Many asked why I would have such a friend. When you take of titles, the same story can look quite different, can’t it?

Note 2: The other alternative, as Krisjan suggested, the government could just set up a national methamphetamine distribution business and make piles of cash