Fire Drill...

Often I find it interesting how I find patterns in the seemingly most unlikely of places. Today I experienced a fire drill at my daily place of work, and the things I heard saw and experienced made me think about, problems and how we cope, brainstorm for a solution, and resolve our problems. The following is a brief description of what happened, after I will explain to you how it correlates to the nature of the human experience of problem solving.

Today I was experiencing a quiet moment at my desk that was suddenly cut short by the blaring of the fire alarms that have a sound likened to what would happen if you took a very loud and obnoxious cricket and put it in front of the mouth piece of a loud speaker, followed by flashing strobe lights that in some cases can cause seizures in epileptics. Now through out our building we have a very organized plan of action, color coded, with maps to exit routes and safe places in the parking lot for the employees to wait while the danger is evaluated. But even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. As the alarm went off everyone quickly and quietly gathered their things and started towards he exits. This sounds text book, but the moment I reached the end of the isle there was a wall of people waiting to squeeze out of the single set of double doors assigned to our section of the building. My fellow employees and I, politely and as quickly as we could filed ourselves outside to find our assigned areas to await the all clear. Everyone gathered behind the signs for our waiting areas long enough to be counted and then scattered in all different directions to gather in their social groups, Very few people were actually concerned about what may be happening to the building and once the all clear was given we once again filed ourselves back into the building to return to our desk and go about the rest of our day.

When problems arise, most times it is when we are not expecting them, and depending on the severity sometimes they are accompanied by shock and alarm. Then we marshal our resources, for some this is a flood of thought and emotion that fills their minds and persists until a solution is found, for others solutions are very easy to find as if the solution is right at their finger tips. Which ever way we search for solutions amongst the many possibilities we present to ourselves we then select the best choice possible and the others return to the back of our minds. Then we implement our course of action and go about our business once it is resolved.

It is amazing how many processes we use everyday in our lives are so ingrained in our minds that they constantly reappear in other facets of our lives when were not paying attention. If you would like to test this out for yourself next time you go out to eat and your checking out the menu for what you would like to order just pay attention to how you order your food. Did you read everything on the menu? Do you have to ask others what they are having, and if so do you have to get something different from them? Do you read the descriptions of the menu items first or do you look at the pictures first? Then compare that to how you would buy clothes or even how you would choose a perspective mate. Chances are one or both of these processes are either a more simplified, possibly increasingly complicated system of choosing our prospective paths for the future.