“And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.” ― Nicholas Sparks
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Of course, you probably know the story of David and Goliath from the Bible. David was just a boy, but he fought the giant Goliath. Even the big men in Saul’s army wouldn’t fight the nine-foot-tall Goliath – but not David.
After knowing that David would fight Goliath, Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he told Saul.
David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, went to battle against Goliath.
“As Goliath moved closer to attack him,” recorded I Samuel 17:48-49, “David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck Goliath on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.”
Yes, David defeated Goliath as simple as that. He did employ those highly-sophisticated battle gears but instead he used his usual gadgets: sling and stone. And both worked.
The same is true with today’s problems. Why don’t we use those time-tested solutions? More often than not, they are so simple that we don’t pay much attention to them anymore.
We are now living in the world of “consumerism,” to quote the words of American history professor Gary Cross and author of An All-Consuming Century. “Consumption has given hundreds of millions of people a new sense of independence and has become a common benchmark to measure personal accomplishment,” notes Christopher Flavin, president of Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.
It’s no wonder why so many people these days equate success with how many cars you own, how many houses or condominiums you have, and how many countries you have visited or toured. Some men even have a mistress or two. “That’s a status symbol of telling others that you have finally arrived,” someone said.
Yes, people have become so materialistic. “Time spent at church is now dwarfed by time spent at the ‘mall,’” laments Flavin. And people are spending beyond their means.
Will Rogers had said it before: “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” Or to quote the words of e. e. cummings: “I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”
“Frugality,” says Elise Boulding, “is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”
My point here is: Why can’t we live simply? Confucius said, “Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” Inspirational writer Norman Vincent Peale was right when he said, “We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.”
Robert Brault suggests: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Louis Stevenson points out: “The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”
Henry David Thoreau urged, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” Ludwig Wittgenstein also said: “The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.”
You don’t have to be rich to enjoy life to the fullest in this world. “To know you have enough is to be rich,” wrote Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu. “The day, water, sun, moon, night — I do not have to purchase these things with money,” Plautus reminds.
William Henry Channing also said, “To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony.”
To end today’s column, allow me to quote Criss Jami who wrote Killosophy: “The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.”
Do I have to explain further?
