When he and I were first dating, my husband Charlie worked at an outdoor sports equipment store in New York. He collected funny stories to tell me, and there were many.
The one that has really taken hold in our family lore involves a man who came in one evening. He asked for Charlie to show him whatever equipment they had that connected one thing to another thing, like in rock climbing. Charlie diligently led him to the wall where they stocked the carabiners, these kind of oval-shaped clips that open and close.
The man surveyed the choices, then explained to Charlie that, “The BMW has a very large fender,” and that he needed the carabiner to tow his car. “This carabiner is too small. Do you have a larger carabiner?”
The man’s problem was not that the carabiner is too small, but that it wasn’t the right solution to the question: “How do I get my car from Point A to Point B?” Faced with a sports equipment store, he may have come up with a solution that was closer to working than the other options in that store, but it still wasn’t going to get the job done.
When we narrow our options too much, it can become hard to see that what we’re considering won’t serve the purpose at all. Instead, we try to make it work, losing time, energy, and other resources along the way.
What if, instead of trying to fit a small carabiner on a large fender, we think about a few other ways we might address the challenge?
