Wicked Problems Call for Reckless Hope

Somehow, underneath the gloves, my hands were already caked with dirt. I had been tilling a small box to plant my peppers. Yet, this grass on top of the soil had proved itself more resilient (and relentless) than I had imagined.

As I reached down, searching for roots and knocking little bits of soil out in the process, my mind wandered.

While I combat these weeds, someone I love has been fighting cancer. Every two weeks, he receives an infusion and pump of chemotherapy. Like my reckless searches, chemotherapy destroys cells. The drugs are designed to target the fast-growing cancer cells, yet healthy cells also suffer.

I don't like the idea of chemotherapy, but I like it more than cancer.

I don't like the idea of uprooting living things, but I'm hoping for some peppers and tomatoes.

I keep digging.

Each week, I've returned to the box, going through the same process. Seek and destroy. Find the network of grassroots and pull. Check on my peppers.

I have a few basic tools. Surely, there are more effective ways to go about this but I prefer a natural approach. Jen vs. the grass.

I am determined.

My partner calls out to me from his box across the way, "I'm afraid that's a losing battle. Don't let this become a quagmire."

Acceptance and Change

In dialectical behavioral therapy, the balance of acceptance and change marks the core dialectic (Linehan, 2015). It echoes the serenity prayer, teaching us to accept what we cannot change and change what we can. Its last request, the wisdom to know the difference, is its own jungle. While there is wisdom in this, we are not all-knowing.

In many cases, we can't be sure of what we can change until we try. And often that means trying more than one thing.

As a therapist and social worker, I have often met individuals in incredibly tangled situations. Sometimes, jobs in my field have had an air of "professional hope holder." Yet, amid the hippie rhetoric and hope, there are realities of people sleeping in parks, critical illness, and people grieving every loss imaginable.

I would love to uproot homelessness and unnecessary pain. Yet, work in the healing arts and social services will humble you. Life carries wicked problems that sweep beyond any individual and are not easily solved. Complexities like addiction, homelessness, and cancer have no easy answers.

When human lives are at stake, the dual is worthwhile.

Reckless Hope and Limitless Resilience

There are spaces where people's resilience will mesmerize you. I have had an honor to meet people who have faced some of the harshest storms and come through. People can do amazing things, and that is magnified when we work together.

Many of those same people have returned to the other side. Bethany Yeiser, an author and community leader, enters my mind. She spent four years on the streets, living with schizophrenia. Today she leads the CureSZ Foundation (CureSZ Foundation, 2025) where she and others are organizing beautiful steps to improve the lives of people living with schizophrenia. Reading her book, Mind Estranged, I felt captivated by her and her family's commitment to the possibility of Bethany's recovery. The words that exemplified that being realized cast tears.

Today, more people survive cancer than ever before. Housing First programs are giving unhoused individuals a home base, and other once-wicked problems like smallpox have been near solved.

Sometimes, people get rid of grass weeds in their garden boxes, too.

Closing

So, what is the difference between meaningful action and a Moby Dick situation? I can give you a general range, but I don't know the exact coordinates. Sometimes, extreme hope is necessary. I might put down some sunflower seeds.