Disclaimer: This post contains my thoughts, almost exactly as I think them, minus a few movies clips, memories too long to describe and a good number of side thoughts. Not to mention the song that was stuck in my head as I wrote it. I guess it's a type of stream of consciousness. Thus is might be confusing. It usually is for me...
Is simplicity something that ever happens anymore? Is anything ever simple? Has my life always been so complicated or is that just a new thing going on? If I tried to live outside of complicated I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work. Our world works on complicated. Even things that seem simple really aren't when you think about them. Like, that piece of paper. It's flat, it's white, it's blank. It's a piece of paper. Simple. But no. Think of the complicated process that went into that paper. A seed had to grow for years, turn into a tree, be cut down, shredded, chemically altered, mixed, processed, somehow turned into paper, packaged, paid for, sent out, delivered, stored, paid for, taken home, and put on my desk. Simple? I think not.
So it isn't simple. Nothing is simple. Is that the point? If every were simple, would nothing be simple? Kind of like in Incredibles when Syndrome, aka Bobby, wants to make everyone super so that no one is super? Maybe if everything were simple, nothing would be worthwhile. All of the complicated things, once they're worked out, usually produce the most worthwhile things. But then once they're worked out does that make them simple or just working in a complicated way? We pay millions of dollars for complicated works of art. But at the same time pay a lot of money for what is advertised as simple furniture, simple ways to clean, simple answers to weight loss and simple ways to find love. That's one we hear all the time. Simple love. What the heck? I don't think there's such a thing. When you love someone aren't there factors upon factors that go into that feeling of affection? Plus getting to that point has never seemed simple. At least not in all the chick flicks I've seen. Speaking of, when does that next movie come out?....And all of those things i thought of before I went on a spiel about love aren't really that simple. So what does simple mean? Am I simple? But when you call someone simple it's usually an insult to their intelligence. So as you gain more and more intelligence do you become less and less simple? Do we want to become more and more complicated? I hope not. I feel like complication is a con. Can I live a simple life in this world full of complicated systems, organizations, and false claims of simplicity?
Does SIMPLICITY even exist? Why do we even have that word? And who was the lucky person (or were they unlucky? Man, having to name everything...?) that got to decide what to call everything? Because of them I look at that thing and think "mirror." And am I looking at a mirror or am I looking at myself.....?
Oh boy. My philosophy class must be getting to my head.
Wow Rachel. I miss these conversations that we would have like this. I like your comment about the tree and paper, how it may seem simple, but there is a whole complicated process that has to be done to make the paper. There's always going to be a complicated process behind practically everything, if not everything; there has to have been some form of complicated process to make the things of this world, whether it was in the creation or manmade in our world now. But, i think that we can still find simplicity in our lives- there's a simplicity in enjoying the complicated things that we have. we can't help that we need complicated ways to make simple things, but it's the simple things that we make or that were made for us that are the simple things in our life. I don't know if that makes any sense. Now you have me really excited for my philosophy class in the fall :)
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