Big problems...

A few years ago, I was walking through my sister-in-law’s house, which was quite a bit bigger than ours, marveling at the space, light, and air of the place. It seemed to me, at the time, that it would be incredible to own such a thing. While we walked and talked, it occurred to me to ask her about any issues she had with the place. I was thinking about our house and the number of problems we had had over the years and was trying to wrap my head around the differences.

I asked, “Is it hard to take care of this house? There is so much room!”

She then said something to me that I will never forget:

“Big house, big problems. Little house, little problems.”

I think she meant this as quaint truism without too much weight, but to me these words hit like a laser beam between the eyes. Of course! It all made so much sense! An epiphany ensued. What I realized was two things:

1. No matter what you have, you cannot outrun problems
2. Sometimes you have the ability to choose the size of your problems

You may think, “This is no big deal. Why is he making such a fuss?”

But there is more to this. These are truly wise words that say so much about so much—some of which will be tackled in other posts, but let the point of this post be: ownership of anything, regardless of size, will cause problems for you and there is no way to avoid it. Anything you bring into your life is a responsibility that needs to be reckoned with, both for good and bad. The buddhists among you are nodding and saying “Duh”, but this point is worth remembering every day and in the most mundane contexts: Ownership is a joy/pain. There is no way to outrun it, there is no way to hide from it. So be careful what you accept into your life. If you agree to have a thing, it is yours for better and worse.

That said, sometimes you get to choose the size of your problems, so make the right choice for you and live with it.

As Johnny Rotten so wisely said: “Problem problem problem ∞”