"Life Is A Series Of Problems"

I read the book, The Road Less Traveled many years ago, and still refer to it from time to time, as you can see from the various highlights, underlines, and marginalia I've added over time.  Reading the very first line, "Life is difficult", was one of those "aha" moments for me. And, as the next chapter goes on, realizing that life just is difficult, and that we should expect it and that it's normal - was just mind-bending for a fellow who wondered and worried about, even obsessed about, why life was just...so...hard. 

I was much younger then, wasn't life supposed to be just fun and easy and carefree? It sure didn't seem like it.

And then, seeing this - and the idea that once we accept the reality that life will be hard, and for everyone, made the feelings of "why me?" float away. I was normal. We all go through this and that.

That was so liberating. Freeing.

Recognizing, as the very first page continues, that "Life is a series of problems" and that "Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing" continued the liberatory feeling. Everyone goes though problems, in fact, that's what life is comprised of - problems to be solved. And discipline provides the means to deal with these problems. He goes on to say (p. 18) that there are four tools of discipline that are means of constructively "experiencing the pain of problems". "There are four," he says "delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing" (p. 18).

Like so much of what is important in life, these are easy to say but much harder to practice over a lifetime.

Before I leave this book and this topic, I want to be sure to note two other points Peck makes.  The first is that "it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning."  "It is only because of problems," he continues, "that we grow mentally and spiritually" (p. 16).   

And finally, he says that the will to use these tools is love.  He talks quite a bit about what love is and isn't later in the book, but I found it and find it heartening to see love, as embodied through the will to carry out these challenging tools Peck describes, as what makes such a difference. 

The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, p. 15, with Kroth marginalia



I surrounded the page with a card featuring Pope Francis that a friend brought back to me from his visit to the U.S. (it is banged up because I carried it in my wallet for years), a stone from a workshop a friend gave with my misspelled simplicity, and hand sanitizer.  They represent here the difficulties of life and the problems we face, the mistakes we all make along the way, and the love which enables the will - the volition - to live life as fully as possible.

The Road Less Traveled is excellent.  It has been around for decades.  It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and folks who read it may want to pick and choose - as with many books - the chapters that are most meaningful and useful.