A Question of Simple
The idea of simplicity in our lives seems to be growing in our awareness. We find that in an increasingly complex existence, simplification has an immense appeal. We seem to have too many things, and our lives become filled with clutter, both physically and mentally. Sometimes we yearn for simpler times when the world was easier to comprehend. However, as I talked about in the Haiku section, simplicity can in itself be extremely complex, e.g. fly fishing, ideograms, haiku. Most activities, if enough skill is involved, can be reached through hard effort only, where the inherent complexity is reduced to apparent simplicity. And beliefs…does one begin with elaborate formulations of thought only to simplify with study and time? Do the gods and goddesses with their elaborate history become over time the one god and then a generalized “creator” that has no corporeality of any type?
The movement toward simplicity seems to be spreading. David Bruno has started what he calls the 100 Thing Challenge. He is attempting to whittle his possessions down to just 100 items (See Time Magazine article June 5, 2008). One thing this effort taught him was deciding what was really important in his life.
I have only once experienced the exhilaration that comes from having almost nothing. I was living in an apartment at the time and awoke about 3 am for some reason. The door to my bedroom was half open and I could see a flickering orange light reflecting on it. I rose and rushed into the living room to see that a fire had started in the corner of the apartment. As I looked for something to put it out, the flames caught a large paper Japanese lantern that hung in the corner and with a loud whoosh and crackle the lantern, the curtains, the couch practically exploded in flames. There I was, naked, the heat singing my face, my hair. I could hear the window glass break and the distant shouts of somebody on the street. Dense choking smoke filled the room.
The smart thing to have done was to immediately leave the apartment…but I was unclothed, and loathe to run naked out on to the cold January streets. So I ran back into the bedroom, pulled on a pair of blue jeans, ran back into blazing living room and tried to open the door which led into the hall way. For some reason the door stuck, and at the first few tugs refused to open. Since this had never happened before, I am not sure of the cause. Perhaps the door expanded in the heat, or there was a pressure differential caused by the superheated air. I felt a moment that almost verged on panic, but then with a great tug I was able to open the door and go out into the pitch black hallway. If I had been smart, I would have gotten to my hands and knees and crawled along that choking hall. The next day I could see where its walls were darkend by the black smoke to within a foot of the floor. Instead, choking on the smoke, I groped my way to the stairway door and made my way down to the first floor and then outside.
Later, going to the hospital wearing nothing but my blue jeans, no shirt and no shoes (no service?), I felt a sense of release thinking about the loss of all my possessions (few though they were at the time!). A new start! A new beginning with nothing to tie or weigh me down. I remember this sense of freedom and exhilaration today, when I ponder the immense burden of possessions that weighs my life down. I think of the 100 Thing Challenge and wonder if it might be a worthwhile endeavor. I would have to exclude my books from the calculation of course!
More infliction…
Leave Taking
Shall I leave in the summer
while cicadas shrill and
The nights are full of gardenia
and honeysuckle?
Or shall I leave in Autumn
with Crimson maples and
The harvest moon?
Perhaps in Winter with
the sting of sleet and
the rattle of bare branches
in a hopeless wind?
No! I want to go in
early Spring with
crocus and nodding daffodils
in a light mist with
rain dripping from the eaves…
“May I live simply, that others may simply live.” Mahatma Ghandhi
