To Solve A Mystery

Solution: An act, plan, or other means, used or proposed, to solve a problem.  

One of the greatest characteristics of The Fellowship is our relentless pursuit of The Solution.  No matter what we're going through, no matter how bad it seems, we're always striving to look on the bright side, to admit that we don't know what's best for us in the long run, and that stuff that seems to be bad often ends up being good.  We are reminded that our total, single-minded focus on getting what we want and avoiding what we don't want hasn't worked out very well.

I was in my late 20s when I staggered, stumbled into The Rooms, still completely unwilling to cede any control of my life to anyone or anything else.  I was convinced that I was right on the verge of turning it all around.  That there was not a sliver of evidence that this was so deterred me not at all.

"How old are you, Seaweed?" someone asked.  "And how are things working out for you?"

Not very well, I had to concede.

"Maybe you should try something different then," was the response.  "Maybe you don't know what you're doing.  Maybe you should take some suggestions from people that have - you know - jobs and cars and shit."

At that juncture I was still a member of the Problem People clan.  I didn't do solution stuff.   I could find the dark cloud in anything.  Nothing was ever enough with me and today I still have a tendency to head right back to the Down escalator.

When I was lying in the chair at the Oral Surgeon's office, looking up at four people in scrubs, wearing face masks - it's never a good thing when there are more than two people getting ready to work on you and god forbid you see one of those elevated galleries ringing the room, filled with observers saying: "Did you hear what they're doing to Seaweed?  I gotta see this for myself" -  I was able to channel some inner gratitude that I had people who knew what they were doing ready to fix my tooth problem and I had the money to do it. 

That was no small accomplishment.