There was an Old Iranian who was intensely proud of two things – his long, white beard that reached down to his chest, and his ability to sleep the moment his head touched the pillow. One day, somebody asked him how he keeps his beard when asleep. That night the old man got into the bed and pulled the blanket over himself but acutely conscious about the position of his beard. He lifted it from under the blanket, and placed it above; then he tucked the beard under the blanket again. But he soon felt it would be better if it was out. In and out went the beard; the old man spent a sleepless night that day.
In our everyday life, a lot of similar situations arise. I am reminded of three friends who went to a hotel. They got a total bill of Rs 75. Each one shared Rs. 25 each and they passed the waiter the bill amount of Rs. 75. The story would have been over unless the manager hadn’t given them a discount of Rs. 5, which he passed to the waiter. Since Rs. 5 is not perfectly divided by three, the waiter took Rs. 2 for himself and returned one Rupee each to these three guys. But it soon grew into a great problem for the waiter. He calculated and calculated but could not find out the missing one Rupee. He knew that each one has now spent Rs. 24 each. That is, 24 X 3 = 72. He has snatched for himself Rs. 2. Still, the total now is only Rs. 72+2=74. The waiter wanted to know where the remaining one Rupee (75 -74 =1) is. He might have spent many sleepless nights over this.
This is exactly what we also mostly do with many harmless situations in life. Either handling a situation in the wrong way or unknowingly allowing a simple situation to strike hard, we spend much of our energy and health every day. This is not a silly mistake at all. By interpreting a situation to be a problem, we initiate a serious mental process, perhaps the most complex of all intellectual functions. A problem solving process requires a high order cognitive efficiency with increased usage of fundamental skills. It is said, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. This does not mean that there are no real problems at all. Every time be confident that there is a solution to every problem. It is said that if you can’t go through the mountain, go around it; if you can’t go around it, go over it, if you can’t do that too sit down and ask yourself, if going the other side is that important. If you feel so, set about digging a tunnel.
