johnmdemarco posted on July 07, 2010 20:13
“It sounds so simple.”
Do you hear that innocuous phrase a lot, often at work but sometimes at home and even in houses of worship? Do you hear it used when people reject common sense alternatives in favor of justifying crazy diets, pining on and on about “it’s complicated” sort of relationships, or groaning about their co-workers or boss?
I do. And while discussing it with someone the other day, I realized that what is really being said behind those words is something like this:
“I am afraid of change. I might lose control.”
A plethora of problems springs forth from our human tendency to unnecessarily complicate things, even when it makes us relatively unhappy. We add layers of bureaucracy and criteria in an effort to create ostensible security, protect turf or generate revenue. The simple solutions are quickly dismissed, scoffed at or sometimes met with malice. For some reason, western culture celebrates the problematic and complex, and often equates simplicity with stupidity.
I wonder sometimes if it is a blow to our egos to be confronted with a simple, obvious solution. When an opportunity that is a gift instead feels like a threat, something is amiss inside.
Some of the most impactful people across history proclaimed a simple yet profound message. Socrates. Buddha. Jesus. Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Teresa.
They were especially profound because they cut through the clutter of human ego and helped others to resonate with something they already knew deep inside, deeper than what was amiss.
Truth.
A few of them were killed. Truth is scary.
Ironic that it also sets one free. It sounds so simple.