LIFE’S LESSONS
By Henrylito D. Tacio
“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs
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When people start to want those things which they cannot have or afford, complications arise. A wife wants a new house while the husband desires to have a new car. The daughter looks forward to having a two-week vacation in another country while the son yearns for a new computer with the latest gadgets.
If these longings can be met, then tears and sadness ensue. A fight is bound to happen along the way. Can a person live a simple life and live happily? “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated,” Confucius stated.
“As you simplify your life,” Henry David Thoreau explained, “the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
So why make such a big fuss about making simple things complicated? “One reason why people have difficulty in getting across their ideas is because they use more words than needed,” says a sage. “I know. I have done so too many times to count. I keep babbling on and on about something for far too long and fill the air with too many words.”
In some instances, that can be a good and enjoyable thing. But more often than not, talking about things which most people will have a hard time understanding what you are talking about is just a way to feed your own ego and keep the spotlight on yourself for as long as possible. “A lot of the time I think it can be useful to simplify and try to use fewer words,” the sage finally admits.
Keep it short and simple. That was also the advice of Rev. Harold R. Watson, the former director of the Davao-based Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) and recipient of the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding.
Watson is a firm believer of E.F. Schumacher, the man behind the bestselling, Small is Beautiful. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent,” Schumacher said. “It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”
Coming from the United States, Watson introduced modern technologies in a 19-hectare farm in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. But small-scale farmers don’t know how to use those tractors, drip irrigation, and artificial insemination, among others.
Watson changed his strategy. He talked with the farmers and learned what they already knew. And from there, he developed what can be done to help them. “It takes technical people to make things complicated but a wise man to make complicated things simple and workable,” he said.
Hearing Watson talk, I was reminded of the words of American industrialist Lee Iacocca: “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”
Well, look at those technical papers and reports. Do people really read them? Most of them can be found in university or public libraries gathering dust. Indeed, what a waste of valuable information.
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak,” master painter and pioneering educator Hans Hofmann reminds. To which the great novelist Ernest Hemingway adds, “My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”
If these famous people can do things in a simple manner, why can’t we? “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci once said. “Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” That’s what Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said.
Know who you are and your standing in life. “Knowing your purpose simplifies your life,” wrote Rick Warren, the author of the bestselling The Purpose-Driven Life. “It defines what you do and what you don’t do. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t.”
I know a lot of people want to be a star, to be the center of attraction. But only a few people can become an overnight star. So, if you can’t be a star, then be a tree. But be a tree that bears fruit. And if you cannot be a tree, then be content with just being a grass. Don’t settle, however, for being just a grass. If possible, be the best grass of all grasses. Simple enough, isn’t it?
Why make things so complicated? Karen Jogerst, author of If I Could Just Get Organized!, suggests, “Take a few things off your plate and take a vacation, get some sleep, eat better, drink less coffee, resolve any conflicts weighing on your mind, get some exercise, get away by yourself once in a while, take off a few pounds, read a good book, and stop and smell the roses.”
Robert Louis Stevenson also suggested, “The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God 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 of life.”
“Live simply so others may simply live,” urged Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa.
“Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life,” Duane Elgin pointed out. “It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.” – ###
