If I was a hammer...

And you were a wrench...

There’s an old saying, when you’re hammer, every problem looks like a nail. But what if you’re a wrench?  Is every problem a bolt?

These are allegorical considerations. And allegories are a means to better understand realities. So, let’s cut straight to the realities.  If you are a lawyer, does every problem look like a law?  Hmmmm.  Maybe.  If you’re a preacher, is every problem solvable with religion? If you are an economist, can every problem be solved with money? If you’re a teacher, are all issues solvable with education? If you’re a politician, is every problem solvable by government?

These are not allegorical considerations.  Not at all. And as we flail away at the issues that we feel need to be solved, let’s examine ourselves as much as we examine the issues. If you are a hammer, can you accept that you are incapable of turning a bolt, and that it’s best to leave it to the wrenches? Again, Hmmmm.

I am a woodworker.  Among other things, I have built furniture, built chairs.  Built them from wood, of course.  But I’ve seen metal workers build chairs from metal.  And plastics workers make them from plastic. In various instances, I’ve needed to fabricate something that will meet my needs; shelving, furniture, fences, structural supports, etc.  In nearly every instance I have used wood.  I know that in many/most of those cases, a metal worker would have used metal, etc.  None of this surprises you, right?

But what about when lawyers tell us that the solution lies in the law?  Do you say, “Wait a minute, the best solution might be something other than another law.”  Or religion. Or schools.  Or money. Or government.

I’ve been around a while. For decades I’ve seen the incessant examples of another allegory, The Three Blind Men and the Elephant. I’ve seen people presume that both the issue and its solution are definable in terms of their own area of expertise.  Literally, no need to consider another point of view.  And in the allegory of the elephant, all the points of view involve blind men.  Do you see the irony?  Points of view from people who can’t see.

Allegories are there for a reason. Hundreds, thousands of years ago, these allegories were created to teach essential lessons. Now we are in a modern age.  Every age is a modern age, to the people of the time.  Many peoples before us have revered the wisdom of the ages, the wisdom of the people who came before them. In doing that, they found deeper comprehension of their own world and of themselves.  Like fools, many people in our ‘modern’ age have tossed all that aside, rejected everything, and presumed that all answers, all solutions can be found within themselves.  And that’s why we solve so little, these days.

With every physical problem I face, I immediately look for a way to solve it with wood.  It’s what I know.  It’s what I can do.  But I am not so full of myself, so tunnel visioned, that I can’t see when metal or plastic is a better material to meet the problem.  I can satisfy myself that I at least can see what material is best, and then find the people (if I don’t already know them), who can solve the problem.  And even before doing that, I can recognize and define the problem.  First things first. And, make no mistake, knowing this about physical realities informs me about cultural realities. Hammers, wrenches, lawyers, teachers, economists. They all excel at something, and are useless for other things.

Living in this world is far easier than it has ever been.  It all works very well, if you know better than to try to turn a bolt by hitting it with a hammer.

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And, yet again, I have the perfect song that doesn’t quite fit my theme. But it’s great fun to listen to, all the same.

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