A Simple Life

I’ve often heard of the legend of a simple life, it’s a tale of life long ago before the invention of computers, the internet, big corporations, and the sixty hour work week.  For many it may sound like an urban myth, you hear people talking about it like tales of old but never quite experiencing it firsthand.   The stories are fascinating to listen too yet difficult to comprehend and wrap around a cerebral cortex that's already jammed with superficial trappings that has bonded the mind to the material world.  But when you hear the stories enough times, you begin to feel as if you’ve lived it some long time ago perhaps in another life and a small part of you begins to wonder what it looks like, smells like, and feels like.

This elusive simple life is attainable yet manages to slip through our fingers like water from a faucet.   Many have come to realize that the more wealth we accumulate the more we hoard and the more things we want.  The bigger house, the Mercedes Benz, expensive vacations, designer clothing and the list goes on.  Consequently, as the price tag gets bigger so does the need to work harder and earn more to maintain this opulent lifestyle which in the end takes us further away from any semblance of a balanced life.  In the end, the lure of the simple life seems like a far-fetched idea, unattainable.  Yet the idea of a simple life still remains within our reach if we focus our energies in the right direction.


Our recent economic collapse was an indication of the level of greed that had ensnared our society for so many years.  When Wall Street and the housing sector failed people lost millions and thousands were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs to keep them warm.  Gone were their mansion style homes, multitude of cars, vacations now became a staycation and shopping at Wal-Mart didn’t seem like such a bad idea.  The failed economy was a reminder that we as a society needed a strong dose of reality to push us back to a time when living was much simpler and didn’t entail working yourself to a literal death.  It was a reminder that life could still be sweet without all the stuff, titles and money.


At the end of the day when the money and status are gone all that’s left is yourself, maybe your family, and the God you pray to at night that is if you believe in such things.   Additionally, the friends who we thought were friends can be found running in the other direction for the next host they can leach themselves onto.  Wealth is a great thing to have but don’t be defined by it.  Live well and be happy.