THE PROBLEM IS
In this higher institution of learning called Life, every one of us is a student. There is no graduation, no diploma, no end-of-semester break—only the continuous pursuit of understanding. Every day offers a new lecture in the arts and sciences of existence, a new test in patience, empathy, and awareness. Humanity, in its curiosity and confusion, continues its race to comprehend itself: to make sense of our triumphs, our mistakes, our desires, and the infinite range of emotions that bind us all together.But here’s the irony: in this never‑ending classroom, nearly everyone claims to be a scholar when it comes to identifying a problem. Have you noticed that? Everyone seems to hold a Ph.D. in recognizing what’s wrong. Whether it’s what society is doing, how the government is failing, what others should have done differently, or how the world has "gone mad"—everyone suddenly becomes an expert.Scroll through social media, listen to coffee shop arguments, or sit in on a family discussion, and you’ll find it everywhere. Endless commentary. Diagnoses. Analyses. Yet if the problem is so easily seen, why then is the solution so rarely practiced? Why does the art of solving, of building, of repairing, appear to be in such short supply?Seeing the Problem Is EasySeeing the problem requires the least effort. It’s observation, reaction, instinct. We witness something broken or unjust and respond emotionally—sometimes angrily, sometimes apathetically—but usually from the surface.Criticism is attractive because it makes us feel aware; it gives the illusion of insight. But to stop there is a cop-out. The truth is, identifying a problem is only the beginning of wisdom, not its completion. To remain fixated on what is wrong, without attempting to change it, is to live perpetually in the first chapter of life’s textbook.Many people mistake their awareness of the problem for enlightenment. They believe that to “see” the dysfunction—whether personal, social, or spiritual—is itself a sign of superior knowledge. But that’s a deception of the ego. Awareness without action is merely blindness wearing glasses.The Scarcity of Problem SolversNow, those educated in the art of solution‑making—ah, that’s a rare breed. Few people dedicate themselves to that second and more difficult step: moving beyond awareness into betterment. Solution seekers are not content with naming the disease; they labor to find the cure. They are the philosophers who act, the spiritualists who serve, the thinkers who build.Why so few? Because solution work requires humility, patience, and sacrifice. It demands that one looks inward instead of outward, acknowledging that the problem often begins within themselves. It takes maturity to understand that blaming alone builds nothing. To solve requires one to give—and giving, whether it be time, effort, or ego, is costly.The world loves a critic, but seldom celebrates a healer. The healer’s path is long and frustrating. It requires failing, learning, and repeating until progress is born. But those who walk it transform both themselves and their surroundings. Life’s Real Curriculum, Life’s most advanced course isn’t “Problem Identification 101.” It’s Applied Solution Theory. It’s learning how to respond rather than react. How to act with compassion instead of condemnation. It’s in reprogramming the instinct that says “look what they did wrong” into “what can I do to make it right?”True education in this grand institution does not end when the problem is seen—it begins when we choose to fix it. Humanity’s growth depends not on its supply of problem‑pointers but on its cultivation of peacemakers, builders, and restorers. The future belongs to those who find balance between mind and heart, analysis and empathy, seeing and doing.A Call to Higher LearningPerhaps the divine riddle of life is that every problem is both a teacher and a mirror. Each issue reflects something unfinished inside us. The academic of life who stops at recognition learns nothing new, while the one who commits to creation graduates a little further each day.So, the next time you hear someone say, “That’s the problem,” ask softly, “Yes—and what’s the solution?” The conversation may end, or it may evolve into something beautiful. The choice depends on who you wish to be: the scholar of problems or the student of solutions.And that, my friend, is the real test of maturity.
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