One of my main beefs about certain things in life is related to how complicated things can get and how simple it could be to resolve – if it were up to me. As in a life-or-death situation when you need to take some medication, does the latest TV commercial flash through your mind about that particular drug? It seems that most miracle cures have debilitating side effects, like heart attacks, convulsions, drowsiness, loss of hair, nervousness, suicidal thoughts, loss of appetite, making high blood pressure higher or low blood pressure lower. For a litany of things that could go wrong if you take that pill that makes you feel just right – if it works properly? I say, wait out the pain until your body adjusts and heals on its own.
Take Michael Jackson, for instance. He seemed like such a happy man. But when you realize the real reason why he used to be so happy, then you wonder if all he ever really needed was real happiness, instead of a drug-induced state of euphoria administered to keep him that way. I guess the moral to his story is that sometimes having too much of a good thing can turn around and bite you where it hurts the most. I believe Jackson led a complicated life.
In our case as Cree, sometimes I value the simple things in life we had or still have when it comes to having a good time or finding happiness. One major happiness factor is watching the sunset or moon rise, depending on whether you are a day or night person. There is always something simple to make you happy, whether you notice it or not, it’s there. Making a simple thing like sunsets complicated is hard to do, so I will use a different example that’s easy to complicate.
Call waiting is one thing that was supposed to make life easier and simpler. But it just gets in the way of someone who is already talking to you on the phone, who gets interrupted by someone who calls later. This defeats its purpose and becomes a real complication for those who cannot understand the weird beeps and sounds that cut into your conversation. What’s even worse, you pay for this service of insane duplicity. To simplify this matter, I would prefer to hear a busy signal, which would immediately make me press redial, redial, redial until I get through. At the least, when there is no answer at the other end of the line, then either no one is there or no one wants to talk to you – simple!
Simple love songs which repeat the word “love” are rather simplistic for some, even childish for others. But when you think of a love song, it gets complicated when there’s a lot of pain is involved. Cheating, drinking, drugs, sex, revenge, lying, fooling around in some back alley – these are generally anti-love in nature. But then they make you wonder… how can something simple like love get so complicated? Perhaps it’s just the natural evolution of love, the final expression you might say, but I beg to differ.
Like someone (a real old Elder from Israel) told me a long time ago – keep it simple, stupid.
