Solving Problems

I write a lot of personal essays, which I think can be best described as stories with lessons. As someone who’s spent his life trying to entertain people in one way or another, I’m a little wary of the word “lesson,” carrying as it does the weight of school and suffering and a whiff of penal consequences. Yet it was what life has taught me that forms the spine of my stories, and it’s what I’ve learned for which I am most grateful and that I most want to share—and so, lessons it is.

Mind you, like school, where I was frequently bored and against which the value of my weekends and summers was measured, I am rarely appreciative of this learning while it’s occurring. In fact, the exact opposite. When I was in third grade, about the age when I’d begun to fully accept the role time played in my life, I’d sit at my desk at the front of the class on Friday afternoons, staring at the clock as it ticked down to 2:30 and my freedom. It’s an experience that would repeat itself in one form or another for decades to come, long after I’d left all formal classrooms.

Though in the actual classrooms I did learn to stop fighting whatever I was being asked to do. Yes, I’d rather have been home playing Whiffle Ball than learning long division, but since I wasn’t going to climb out a window and run to my back yard, better to give my full attention to the math. Time passed more quickly when I did so, and the truth is that for me, as experiences went, solving equations wasn’t that bad.

It’s just that not that bad is a very low bar for an experience. Eventually, not that bad becomes its own kind of prison as I dream of good or great, and now I’m watching the clock again. Still, when I need to pay my taxes or write a bunch of emails or go to Home Depot for that paint sample, it’s good if I can remember what doing long division taught me. “When will I be free?” is just not a helpful question. Better to ask, “What if I am already am free?” That’s the equation that’s followed me across my entire life, demanding my attention, helping me to solve what was never a problem to begin with.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com