Feb. 4. SIMPLICITY. Think of 3 ways you can simply your life and put at least one into practice today.
Simplicity. Hmmm, mostly I like to find ways to complicate my life like by starting to Twitter yesterday so that whenever I’m sitting still I can really be tweeting (I still can’t think that I have anything interesting to say in 40 characters, but we’ll give it a try).
OK, simplicity…what does that even mean, really? Dictionary.Com says this:
simâ‹…plicâ‹…iâ‹…ty
1. the state, quality, or an instance of being simple.
2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts: an organism of great simplicity.
3. absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.; plainness: a life of simplicity.
4. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.
5. lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness: Politics is not a field for simplicity about human nature.
Okay, let’s look at definition 2 above, freedom from complexity. I make make my life more complex when I place a lot of phone calls to make sure that people are doing what they say they will do. That might be appropriate when I’m a paid organizer, but when I’m just another mom, how about letting people keep their own calendars and either fall short or not?
Definition 3, absence of pretentiousness. Where would I be without pretention? I love being pretentious. Hmmm, how about not trying to take credit for whatever the next thing is that I want to take credit for? I could do that.
Is that 3 yet? No. One more. Definition 4, freedom from deceit or guile, sincerity. I was raised on deceit and guile. Deceit and guile is mother’s milk to me. I remember one time my mother-in-law emailed me after a visit to their home across the country. She said, “we had such a lovely time with you and Bill and the kids. You are a wonderful family. We can’t wait until you come back.” I emailed it to my brothers and they said, “what kind of sick game is she playing?!”
Okay, what’s coming to me is less sarcasm. Sarcasm is, at its root, guile and deceit, thus not simple. What’s simple is telling the truth. So I resolve to be less sarcastic with my children. They need to grow up knowing what sincerity looks like. I don’t know if I can resolve to do it on this blog, isn’t simplicity boring?
Oh, and put at least one into action–why not all 3, wouldn’t that be more simple? Actually no, okay, sigh, I pick the sarcasm with kids one. Just for today.
I'd prefer to focus on definitions three and five: wear sweats and be dumb — why, that's easy, I can do that!
on second thought, I agree with Alec. Sounds good!