(Leer en español) I would like to start this article with a story. Six years ago I went to Egypt with my dad, beautiful country, not so great men. We were there for around 10 days, and I clearly remember walking with my dad when this guy offered him 100 camels for me. No need to ask, I was offended, my dad laughed but told me to keep walking and to ignore him.
That’s my experience with camels and honestly completely unrelated with what I want to share with you today. In my last class of Socio psychology, our teacher Dr. Dennis Kahn, told us this brief story I am about to tell you, that also involves camels.
Story time. A father had 17 camels and 3 sons. He passed away and in the Will he stated that his eldest son should get half of the camels, the middle son would receive a third and the youngest one-ninth. In case you didn’t notice it, you can’t divide 17 between 2, or 3 or 9.
Yes, there is a conflict! One of the brothers suggested to go meet an old wise woman/man (there are different versions in the internet but I am a woman, so they went to see a woman). And this woman comes up and give them a temporary camel turning the number into 18, which guess what, can actually be divided between 2, 3 and 9.
Long story short, the first son gets 9 camels, the second one gets 6 and the last one 2. The old wise woman takes her camel back, goes home and turns on Netflix to catch up with The Crown.
3 things to learn from this that can help you solve a conflict:
First, look for advice, specially from someone who knows more than you. Looking advice in people who has no experience nor training, is like asking yourself stuff, is not gonna head anywhere.
Second, try to see things from a different perspective. These brothers just needed an «extra» camel to make things work and live in peace, but sometimes we are too blind to see it.
Third, don’t mess with the camels or with women. Women are not for sale in exchange of camels or anything at all. We are not things! – Yes, this is a call out for all men (or women) who think you can buy a life. Period.
