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Apr 20, 2004 In the book Walden, Henry David Thoreau said three simple words that stated his entire views on the subject of life. “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” In today’s society it seems that we are doing everything we possibly can to complicate the simple things in life. The take of watching television has become complex. First, you have to discover how the five hundred button remote control works and while pressing buttons you realize that you have launched a rocket to the moon and contacted alien life. Then you have to sift through sixty-five sports channels, thirty-four movie channels, twelve cartoon channels, fifteen news channels, five romance channels, eighteen history channels, and fifty- four channels of blurry porn (unless you got the deluxe package). Finally after all this the movie you wanted to watch is off anyway so instead you get up to make popcorn and get a soda. Let’s not even get started on that. I believe that Thoreau had it right. We have all these new inventions in our lives that are supposed to make things simpler and we spend so much time learning how to use them that we don’t spend any time on anything else. I truly do believe that my father has spent more time trying to fix his computer than actually playing games on it. There’s always an upgrade, a better way to do it; until someone comes out and tells you that that better way is actually not a better way. Despite the fact that I loathed Walden and almost everything about it, being forced to read it as a junior in high school, Thoreau still knew his stuff. He was good about stepping back and watching the world, not being so involved in it as to get bogged down by it. I make a point not to spend more time fixing something than I do playing on it or using it. If I have to tear down and rebuild something before I can use it, it usually makes its way to a far corner in my room. I watch all these people with their cell phones and palm pilots and lap top computers and I scratch my head. You have Mr. Jones sitting on the park bench talking to Mr. Davis in New York on his cell phone, checking to see when his meeting with Dr. Rue is on his palm pilot, and instant messaging with Mr. Ying in Tokyo. I have to wonder. When he hangs up his phone, turns off his palm pilot, and closes his lap top, how much of the past fifteen minutes does he remember? I challenge you to follow the words of Henry David Thoreau and simplify, simplify, simplify. If you have more than one electronic gadget in your bag, I challenge you to take only one. If you find that you are spending thirty-six hours fixing your TV and two hours fixing your relationship, put away the tools. If you play more with your remote than you do with your lover, well, I’ll leave that one to the imagination. Realize though, that you only have one life to live. Don’t spend it with your head buried in an instruction manual. Get outside, listen to the birds and feel the wind on your face. Get some color after spending a week under a desk trying to figure out which wire plugs into where and why your computer seems like it’s cussing you out. Basically, once you get down to it, what I’m trying to say in the twisted and complicated map that I have drawn you is simply this: simplify. ------------ About the author: Patrie Davis is 16 years old and lives in Indiana. She is currently attempting to publish her first work, a science fiction novel entitled Mystic Desert that she began when she was 12. She has been writing all her life and also enjoys hockey, soccer, and motocross. Email: MantacoreX5@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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