4/4/2019
Simple things: most of us adults over 50 would say we lived simple lives. Our growing up years–40s, 50, 60s, 70s, were very easy times. O yes, I know about the wars (41-45; 49-53; 61-74), yet the way we lived was simpler than the way gen-Xers and millennials live today.
You’ve heard me say before how I grew up in a small town, the last of 8 kids. The first 4 of those kids spent most of their growing up years on a farm. As near as I can remember from listening and talking to all them, only one liked it, the older 3 wished they had been somewhere else. Until I was 16, or so, the only broken bone any of us had was my sister Margaret broke her leg when a tree swing rope snapped or came loose, down on the farm. Cows got milked, the bottom fields grew great crops of alfalfa, corn or wheat, a barn burned and got rebuilt, water was carried “up to the house” from a well at the foot of the hill—these are great things. I was very small when we left the farm and moved to what is still my favorite town in the whole world, maybe a few months before I was 5.
Simple: There are many words which describe what simple means. I want to talk about 7 of them as connected with what I truly believe is the best way to grow from infancy to maturity. You are more than welcome to describe simple, simple things, and simplicity with 7 (or more) different terms, if you want. This isn’t a contest, we’ll just keep it simple.
The first word is straightforward: this produces quick understanding and the ability to see things as if you are looking directly through them. Sees things as easy as pie, elementary, etc. I lived that way till once my mom was ill and people gathered to pray for her. That sort of interfered with the direct and painless way I had been seeing the world around me.
The second is clear: this is an uncomplicated approach. Stuff seems easy to understand. The sort of “I get it” result of a presentation. Arithmetic instead of mathematics. Completely through 8th grade I made straight As in arithmetic….we won’t talk about math that way.
The third is plain: carries several explanations with negative notes. things like undecorated, or uncluttered, not flashy or not showy. A “plain” woman in my growing up definitions, never wore makeup or jewelry, never trimmed her eyebrows. A car in the 50s and 60s was plain if it didn’t have chrome showing itself flashy.
The fourth is candid: I was 32 years old till I came to understand what this simple term meant—frank, honest, sincere but unreserved and unvarnished when it came to truth. But, most of my acquaintances growing up were all quite candid, especially toward what they liked or disliked about others.
The fifthis unpretentious: this was the unassuming, and naturally honest-to-goodness attitudes I saw in the people who shaped my persona, the image with which I would face the grown up world. In our town, we only had 3 or 4 pretentious people and we all knew who they were.
The sixth is non-intellectual: Simple as it relates to a learning process, we come to find out, didn’t mean stupid, or unable. It meant different. Usually, the IQ was low, but still, many whom we would have lovingly called simple came to be of importance to someone or some group and defied our thoughts of whatever would become of them. I knew a few where I grew up who went on to become loving fathers, caretakers of those they loved and several other admirable traits as adults.
The seventh is noncompound: This simple approach is seeing things uncombined, standing alone, unblended, pure, like simple sugars. this isn’t always the best approach (certainly not in sugar), but the bare fact of the matter was a common approach. My absolute best example of noncompound is Christ, my Savior. The Apostle Paul warned against being fooled by the fake religionists, away “from the simplicity which is in Christ.” Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again for our justification: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved. Simple.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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