Soft-Time Solution: Making Space For The Problem To Solve Itself (with my private police escort through the Nice carnival).

ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #24

Nothing can be done,

but what is possible, sir? -

soft-time solution.

The situation I found myself in yesterday near the Nice Carnival.

The photo is taken from inside my car. There were about fifteen gendarmes surrounding me, some soldiers with machine guns, security guards, a sniffer dog and a forklift driver who had deposited a large concrete barrier in front of my car, barring it from exiting the carpark. Just another day in France.

I was just saying to someone recently that France humbles you in a good way, it forces you to relax and go with the flow. And then, just like that, I had a chance to practice what I’d preached.

Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment in Nice. My doctor’s office is right off of Place Masséna, near to where the annual Nice Carnaval was about to start up. I’d received notice to clear out of the carpark before 12PM, before the festival commenced, but the city had not bothered to tell the carpark attendants that for security reasons they were closing not only the carpark exit early, but also all the surrounding streets. So I found myself at the head of a queue of about fifteen cars, trapped inside an underground carpark exit ramp that was going to be closed for at least six hours until the festival was over. 

Since a horrific terrorist attack in 2016 the Nice police are very sensitive to any kind of security complication. First the municipal police came, then the regular police, then the national police, the festival security, some soldiers, and carpark management. The Russian couple behind me spoke no French and were getting a little nervous. Then, as often occurs in France, a collective conversation takes place where every voice must be heard, every fault as to how the error happened uncovered, and every possibility for a potential solution reasoned out (it must never be assumed that an actual solution could be reached because that would most certainly jinx any chance of one being found out). 

I’d been in similar situations in France before. There’s no point complaining, or arguing that you have to be somewhere, or that someone has to do something.

It’s common to be told in France “it’s not possible” or “nothing can be done”, even if you’re trying to buy something from a store and the item is right there on the shelf behind the storeperson.

Getting agitated or impatient will just hold things up, the French can argue all day if required. They enjoy talking things out and coming to a logical conclusion, that more often than not involves their position being the correct one. They’re taught to do this at length in their education system. 

So if you want to get anything done and avoid complication, the correct response, I have learned over time, is: