{"id":14,"date":"2011-01-13T11:35:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T16:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2011-01-13T11:35:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T16:35:49","slug":"the-solutionist-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/?page_id=14","title":{"rendered":"The Solutionist, Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Introduction To Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

At times, it is challenging to overcome zero inertia and start accelerating beyond just thinking about moving forward.<\/p>\n

Now, if that doesn\u2019t sound like something from an engineer, I don’t know what does.<\/p>\n

As an engineer, I have been taught to think logically, sometimes at the expense of emotional consideration.\u00a0 This is not to say I am an unemotional person; I am emotional, almost to the point of embarrassment, like crying at movies.<\/p>\n

However, as an engineer, I usually get right to the point and move along the (proverbial straight) line to the end.\u00a0 Formulas and facts based on scientific research are the norm; if not always the path followed for getting to the goal.<\/p>\n

I am not in my chosen area of professional engineering expertise here; I am, however, observant, logical and creative.\u00a0 I have worked since I was about 13 years old as a dishwasher, a laborer, a janitor, a designer, a supervisor, and a manager.\u00a0 I have worked with troubled teens through social service programs.\u00a0 I have been a son, a brother, a husband, father, uncle, grandpa and lots of other good things. \u00a0I have experienced my share of discomfort and unpleasantness. \u00a0I continue to think of myself as a student.\u00a0 I have also made my share of mistakes from which I always (finally) learned.\u00a0 What I am proposing is a rather dramatic change in the way we live and the way we approach solving problems, a better way than how we do things now.<\/p>\n

This is not a proposal for political philosophy like socialism or communism or capitalism.\u00a0 In fact, I believe the changes I am suggesting would not be classified under any \u201cism\u201d, unless there is something called \u201csense-ism\u201d. \u00a0It is more a change in the timing and structure of our individual and family lives, and a challenge to everyone to participate in making positive changes, and not just in themselves.\u00a0 It does, however, suggest some changes in our way of doing politics.<\/p>\n

We have it wrong in so many ways.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, this is how life works now:<\/p>\n

A child is born.\u00a0 The parents (and other care givers) take care of the child for the first several years.<\/p>\n

The child then spends the next twelve to sixteen years going to school for nine months of the year and on vacation for three months each year.<\/p>\n

Rather suddenly we are considered adults and enter the \u201creal\u201d world of working for a living (maybe getting a week or two of vacation each year).\u00a0 We may even get a little special training or advanced education along the way, but then again, we may not.<\/p>\n

As adults, we are expected to continue working until allowed to retire, usually after we are in our sixties.<\/p>\n

Once retired, we are hopefully able to pursue activities of our own choosing.\u00a0 Assuming of course we have saved enough money to last the rest of our lives.\u00a0 This is even more of a problem now, since we are living longer and many have been negatively impacted by the economy.<\/p>\n

In each phase of living there are advantages and disadvantages.\u00a0 Social problems present with the current way of living could be alleviated by strategic changes.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with phase one, birth to school.\u00a0 Of course, as the new arrival, our needs are only met by a parent or other caregiver, because we are unable to care for ourselves.\u00a0 Assuming we are not left to ourselves, with no care or inadequate care, the disadvantages to the infant-self appear not too bad.\u00a0 The problem is not always clear; but there are many parents and children \u201cat risk\u201d.\u00a0 We will explore these risks more in the following chapters.<\/p>\n

After five years the child begins regular school.\u00a0 For nine months, they attend school and look forward to three months of \u201csummer vacation\u201d each year.\u00a0 Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th…,\u00a0 what a bore<\/em> and so much time to get into mischief.\u00a0 Once again, the parents must find a way to care for the child before school, after school and during summer vacation.\u00a0 Finding child care after school is a challenge and has created a new classification of individuals known as \u201clatch-key kids\u201d, children who come home to a house or apartment without adult supervision and are supposed to lock themselves in and wait for a parent to come home.<\/p>\n

As children move through the system they often find they have too much unoccupied and unsupervised time.\u00a0 This sometimes leads to a path of trouble.\u00a0 I have worked with too many young people who have gotten into trouble to the point of having to go to jail.\u00a0 These problems do not necessarily stem from just having too much time on their hands, but too much time without purpose or insufficient direction certainly contributes to the problem.\u00a0 Family difficulties, dysfunctions and other influences play a role in starting and continuing these problems.\u00a0 Outside influences play a greater challenge to children who have both the time on their hands and who may be lacking in supervision.\u00a0 Once again, the risks explored later may influence the life of the child.<\/p>\n

At the end of high school, we suddenly enter the adult world.\u00a0 Some pursue additional training or higher education for two to four years.\u00a0 Some, for a very few, a \u201cpost graduate\u201d degree is pursued.\u00a0 Even so, once this short phase is completed it is on to www dot; otherwise known as the worldwide workforce.\u00a0 Not nearly as exciting as the other www dot we have come to know and love.\u00a0 At this point, we are usually between 18 and 23 and ready to survive if not conquer the world.\u00a0 Some, however, are led, pushed or blindly follow along a path where there seems to be little hope.\u00a0 The assumption is – failure is imminent.\u00a0 Prison is too often a place to find a home.<\/p>\n

The problems, challenges and disadvantages of the adult era of life are almost too numerous to cover.\u00a0 This is the most unforgiving era of life.\u00a0 Changing careers is difficult, in part because it is very challenging to work and get higher education or special training at the same time.\u00a0 It is also difficult to pursue new things because we now have \u201cresponsibilities\u201d which may be families, rent and housing expenses, transportation expenses and loan payments; a chilling thought and worries keep us awake at night.\u00a0 Has our educational system failed to provide us with what is really needed to get through life?\u00a0 It is not only the educational system, because many individuals do well, but it is widely believed major changes in education are needed.\u00a0 We just seem not to have it figured out yet or have difficulty accepting changes.<\/p>\n

Finding time for rest and relaxation, vacations, travel, entertainment and everything not work is difficult.\u00a0 Finding time for family, raising children, teaching others and care-giving is also a challenge.\u00a0 About the time we feel all used up we get to retire.<\/p>\n

After only forty years or so we may get to retire.\u00a0 If we live long enough and have sufficient money to live on we may even look forward to retirement.\u00a0 I don’t want to paint too gloomy of a picture here, but too many think of retirement as waiting to die.\u00a0 Some of us think of it as a time where we have waited to live.\u00a0 The problems in this area of our lives are present also.\u00a0 Health, money, social standing is offset by having time to do things we didn’t have time for before.\u00a0 There must be a better way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1 An Introduction To Life At times, it is challenging to overcome zero inertia and start accelerating beyond just thinking about moving forward. Now, if that doesn\u2019t sound like something from an engineer, I don’t know what does. As an engineer, I have been taught to think logically, sometimes at the expense of emotional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesolutionist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}