Why Being Simple is Complicated

And so I spent another day wasting a lot of time online, supposedly working, but actually doing a lot else. I have turned a little bit of a net junkie, though I will not, will not admit it! Following one link after another, I came across some articles on the Amish people in theUS. I often tend to read up a lot on some topic that catches my fancy (there is a word for that sort of reading, I just can’t remember what it is now) and while doing so I ended up watching a documentary on them. It was specifically about the practice of ‘rum-springa’ (loosely translated to mean ‘running around’) that allows teenagers to live like the rest of the world for about a year or more. After that they have to choose to either be baptized or leave the community if they prefer not to follow the customs of the Amish.

Now for those of you who haven’t heard of them, the Amish are an ultra conservative community that is mainly known for simplistic living and for shunning all modern technologies, including electricity, cars and communication devices. Children study only up to class 8 after which they are baptized and work in the fields from dawn to dusk. The patriarchal system of society emphasizes on family, the church and the community and discourages much contact with theHigh People or The Englishers as the non-Amish people are called. Predictably, there are several cases of crimes of hate against these people who continue to drive around in horse driven buggies and wear 17thcentury clothes.

Watching the videos and reading up on them, I got thinking (what else could you expect, eh?). I remember vaguely an old Readers’ Digest article on them, talking about how they churn fresh butter every morning. The pictures were taken at dawn, a cow and some Amish people around a table. Addicted that we are to modern amenities, I wondered how easy (or not) it would be to go to a simpler life. No, I don’t mean the Amish way, which would be rather regressive in these times. But then, hear me out here, will you, do we really need all that we burden ourselves with?

There was a time when I was mighty interested in the idea of kibbutz and even contemplated visiting one. I would be the last person to be comfortable living without my personal space but these experiments in alternative living (I believe ‘conscious living’ is the fancier word these days) have long fascinated me. A kibbutz is where you work for the community, where the kids live in separate quarters and there is no concept of individual space. I wonder then what role individualism plays in the creative process of a life. If all things are for and by the collective, would creativity still thrive? Or in the other case of places like Auroville, where nothing belongs to the individual, would it be an ideal field for a creative process to take root in? I have often wondered.

In that light, I sometimes wish (call me regressive, or perhaps idealistic) for ignorance. Ignorance of how big the world is. Ignorance of how many ideas there are. A simple life comes with simpler concerns at least. But when you have seen the other side from over the window, it is just too complicated to let go. To let go of complications in life. To choose the simple over the so-not-simple. To find my way out of another tangle that I have landed myself in with these paragraphs here!

Within the blink of an eye, we go from what is simple to what is twisted, drawn like the proverbial moth to the fire, singeing its wings on the burning blue edges, yet unable to turn away. When simple has been the way things were for longer than they were complicated, why should it be so tough to revert? But it is. Or maybe I am just peeking in from the outside through the coloured panes of the window.

Thank God They Are Not CREATIVE

My day starts early by cosmos standard and the first know-by-face person I meet is a lady that sweeps the pedestrian way through which I jog. She does her job in the most un-creative way one can. Starts from same end and ending at same, piles up the kuda at the same place and guess what dump it in the same very dust-bin. So very repetitive, no fun. And on the same pathway, I try to jog by million a way. Sometime sprint, sometime side-hop other time back-side, because ‘m creative you see.

Off to the park for some perspiring. And I meet the gardener doing his job the same way for ages. He always rolls the garden from left to right, never try the other way. The Serbs remains in the same shape all their lifetime courtesy to him. He plants the same type of sapling every rains, never try to be differentt. On the other side, since last 4-5 years everyday, at least I spend my two minutes of my day thinking had this bench been there it would had been better. Or had this tree not been here it would had made the perfect view. Again imaginativity, you see.

Few hours late in office, I meet the Housekeeping Lady. She spent all her day in the pantry, same as ever, probably from the times of Napoleons. She does the same job (cleaning slab, washing cup, dumping waste) same way everyday. No change in the routine. Not at All. But I, yes you guessed it right, being innovative do the same thing in hundred uncertified way. Someday washing cups for myself, other day sliding from one end to other of the slab (whenever ‘m in rolling mood) ultimately to land it in sink. And when time permits, putting all my knowledge of projection physics and dynamics to make the paper-plate- turned-ball into the bin.  Needless to say, I want it different everyday.

I case you have been more than confused by now, all I wanted to say to all those who believe that had not the man been creative (I also part of this mass) man would have remained apes. Pal, you are wrong, you can stand and proudly boast of being innovative is because of millions of people like them who have chosen to be uncreative only to hold your base tight. Had they been there to hold the ground intact, your glasshouse of innovatively had never been here. It’s only because these happy-doing-same-things people, you get space to try new. Had all apes gone out to do thing their way, leaving of making up to manship, I doubt if we could have managed to remain ape itself.      

Had not people like them confined themselves to being repetitive, probably you would have never got a ground to sketch your creative world (imagine the world where everyone tried to do everything differently everyday). So next time you conclude being creative, spare a second to thanks all those who chose not to be as creative as you.