Who are we kidding? Only ourselves. Life was never simple! The only thing that changes is our perception of our inner world and the layers of mental complexity we assign to our days.
Sure, there are days and periods of happiness but even in those days past, was there anything simple about them? Even my childhood was complicated once I consider events but I was frankly too young to understand. Is a lack of understanding congruant with simplicity?
Simple can be right now. Simple can be but a step away. Simple isn’t all about outside influences. I figure someone will look back on today, 40 years from now and think; my life was so much simpler back in 2023. And maybe that’s not right but there’s no way to prove otherwise and the statement has validity.
You might have a business or job, a house, a wife, a couple of kids, a boat, a car, a motorcycle and of course you had none of that when you were five. You watching the very last episode of Howdy Doody or playing with your Tonka Trucks or ran around your back yard. You didn’t think about your mom’s very first Tupperware party except that it was fun. But you also didn’t have seemingly endless supplies of cheap plastic Chinese toys or even a computer or tablet. There weren’t 8 billion people on the planet or Google Earth or the Kardashians. (I somehow wasn’t shocked that spellcheck got their name spelled correctly) So is today any more complicated or are the complications simply a matter of cognizance?
No, instead of media bombardment we had fallout shelters. Sonic booms via the nearby Air Force Base were common. We were told electricity would be practically free and that the genetically engineered crops would make our fruits and vegetables larger and blemish free, not to mention plentiful. We soon had the Vietnam War, Rock and Roll and free love. We were lied to by our government. Is that all so different than today?
But then in 1982 we also had fifty cent bridge tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge and toll takers we knew by name and sometimes we’d pay for the car behind us. Simpler? No, just friendlier. We thought race relations were becoming better, but they weren’t. We thought that homelessness was being solved but now we have the unhoused. We thought that with the formation of the EPA and the subsequent cleanup of cesspools like the Ohio river meant we were on a true path to conservatism but then the conservatives don’t seem to want to conserve much of anything these days except maybe Cromwell’s view of 17th century England. The age of scientific enlightenment has become an age of fear and the celebration of simple minded thought. I’m weary of the simpletons with attitude who openly challenge me because they can’t comprehend 50 cent words. I miss most of my vocabulary.
Can it get any simpler than that?
Today isn’t complicated at all. Earth is simply overrun by humans who, in final analysis, are one trick ponies. Sure, there are those who understand love, who understand what we are up against, but in actuality compassionate humans are all too easily defeated or exterminated by violence. The knock on effect of all this is that those who are left are less likely to persevere in the face of violence thereby allowing thugs to flourish. And these thugs aren’t your typical street gang types, no, they are in our government, in our churches, part of our news, part of our entertainment. Heck, they were probably right next to you on the freeway this morning.
Now, I’m not afraid of making money, not at all, but I’m not and have never been into plunder, yet takers exist in great numbers.
I suppose I should write about the corn and wheat fields of my childhood; of my best friend Curtis who literally grew up on the other side of the tracks in Hiawatha, Kansas. And yes, he was black. I should probably write about the massive sunflower that would grow in our garden every year or our family doctor who lived but two houses away and owned a color TV. I should probably write about our pet rabbit, Whiskers and Bruce, our Australian Shepard. Or, I could write an awesome story about Clara Castleman, who cut out art projects for me in the 3rd grade after I’d broken my right arm and couldn’t handle scissors. I’ll never forget her kindness.
I was younger then and very naive but I’m sure with a clear mind, who’s to say the present need be complicated?