When looking to make progress on important issues, there may be technical problems and adaptive challenges. In either case, you may be able to find a solution.
Kansas City District Superintendent, Mike Chamberlain, reminded clergy at one of our district gatherings that if you can’t find a solution, it’s not a problem. It is a condition.
You can go crazy trying to find a solution to a condition.
Rev. Andrew Conard 
3 replies on “Are You Trying to Solve a Condition? You Can’t.”
Perhaps Mike has overstated this a bit. Just because you can’t find a solution doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a solution.
I agree with Clif. It is dangerous to jump too quickly to accepting that something cannot be solved.
Additionally, just because something is a condition does not mean that work should not be done to mitigate or eliminate that condition. It may mean that the solution does not directly affect the issue. For example, I have a spot with limited skin sensitivity on my leg. This is a condition of a nerve constriction at my hip. The solution to the numbness is not to treat the leg, but to treat what is causing the nerve constriction. Therefore, I try to control my weight to reduce the numbness and prevent further nerve issues, which can include constant pain, which is almost untreatable.
Yes, you cannot solve all conditions directly. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with them all, either.
I am partially echoing the previous comments and add some additional thoughts. You have to know that I went to school in Missouri and have a daughter who lives and teaches in the Kansas City area, so I have a peripheral knowledge of the KC school system.
My immediate thought was that if I label something as a condition and it is a bad condition, does that automatically mean that nothing can be done?
What I know about the KC school system is that it is not a good school system and my daughter’s district is constantly checking the addresses of students to make sure that they do in fact live in the correct school district and not trying to get out of another district, such as the KC district.
Are the condititions that force parents to seek better schools for their children solvable or improvable? If administrators label something as a condition, does that mean that they don’t have to fix things?
Conditions are created by the actions of individuals and thus are open to alternative solutions.