Purpose: To Seek and To Solve

Ben Bergeron, paraphrased from his "Story About the Old Farmer" episode from May 17, 2022 (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/chasing-excellence/id1170629044?i=1000561781908):

The function of the mind is twofold - to seek, then focus on, and to solve, problems. When it finds neither to do, it drops a level, to chatter. It is actively seeking a problem to solve, a matter to focus on. It will literally create problems because it is not being put to use for a higher purpose, or a problem that matters.

My application is that to free ourselves from disillusionment and anxiety, this chatter and spiraling, from make-work projects and the addiction to try to control or criticize other people, we must discipline ourselves to pursue a focus, something lasting, and to find a worthy problem, and then work to solve it.

This is why first-world governments, banks, school administrations, town permitting departments and membership boards for fancy golf courses take months to come to simple decisions and bog us all down with rules, paperwork, and laws about how we must speak and think, and how thick our drywall must be.

When there aren’t any real problems, from a physical level all the way up to a relational and spiritual level, all of our brains, including theirs, need stimulation and purpose. In the absence of these things, we descend into the pursuit of their counterfeits: control and criticism.