DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM NOT THE SYMPTOM

My strawberries were blooming well and I read that straw would do the job of keeping them off the ground away from muddy rain splashes. Straw also prevents slugs from getting to them first as slugs avoid anything that scratches their slimy bodies. There is no end to learning and being a gardening enthusiast amongst many other things, I welcome new knowledge every day.

So I asked my friend is she had some straw to spare and to my delight, she gave me a big bag that fitted nicely into the boot of my car. After putting the straw down on the bed there was excess so I scanned through straw crafts to see what I could do with it. Making a scarecrow sounded very appealing. I needed something to frighten away the pesky birds from feasting on the greens but most of all I was excited over a worthy challenge.

I had never made a scarecrow before so I went into enthusiasm overload. Seamus the Scarecrow had a big job to do and like every Superhero he needed his own unique costume. I gave him a fine shirt, a pair of jeans and a straw hat with a hand-sewn pumpkin on it. I even made him a vest out of a 15 year old vintage fabric with gardening images. He looked really dapper but alas I could not give him a brain.

Almost instantaneously, I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz with the scarecrow by my side. The scarecrow had decided to follow Dorothy to Emerald City to ask the wizard for a brain. 

In reality, he had common sense and was finally recognized as "the wisest man in all of Oz” at the end of the novel despite not having an actual brain. So it wasn't a brain that he lacked but self confidence. It is said that the Scarecrow reflects the Kansas farmer as viewed by outsiders, needing a brain to replace the straw in his head.

I can see that there are two issues here.

The first issue is thinking that we think we need something very badly but actually we may not need it at all. Or we may be looking for the wrong thing altogether.

Case in point would be when we tend to search for relief rather than for a solution. We treat the symptoms rather than the root of the problem. The problem could be an actual physical disease or otherwise.

Take for example a headache. The first reaction would be to reach for a pill and hope that the pain will go away. Nothing wrong with that except we do not normally think of what caused the headache in the first place and try to prevent it from reoccurring. So we say we need a pain killer instead of an antidote for the source of the pain.

On the other hand, looking for a solution to a problem is like a car mechanic dealing with a rattling noise in the car. The mechanic will do a thorough check in order to find out what is causing the noise. Then once it is fixed, the happy customer drives the car with no worries.

If we can do that with an inanimate object why can’t we apply the same procedures when dealing with a personal problem?

Fear could be one reason why we avoid dealing with the real issue. We don’t want to unlock a door because we do not know what’s on the other side. Even though we are running around trying to fix the symptoms, the issue will not go away until we confront it

.

Finding the root cause requires persistence. Sometimes a problem can be the result of many smaller problems that have not been resolved, just like the formation of a Tel. In archaeology, a Tel, (derived from the Arabic word meaning 'hill' or 'mound'), is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated refuse of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic Tel looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides and can be up to 30 metres high.

The second issue is forming an opinion of ourselves based on the opinions of others. For those affected by this, it can take years and plenty of support and determination to feel secure and proud of who we are.

So for now, Seamus the Scarecrow stands proudly guarding my vegetable beds and the apple tree. In his solitary post, I must say that the silent sentinel does his job very well indeed.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE NEW STRAITS TIMES 29 JULY 2018
http://digital.nstp.com.my/nst/books/nstnews/2018/20180729nstnews/index.html#/23/