It's come up in many ways in my life lately.
Aren't we all just too complicated?
I am.
I don't want to be but I am.
In a class last week we discussed a village in Brazil that was perfectly happy with their way of life.
Which included grass huts, loin clothes and food that they gathered themselves each day.
Obviously, this is the extreme of simplicity.
I'm positive that I don't want to be that simple.
But what really got under my skin is that a group of Americans went over to Brazil and tried to "fix" this village.
They didn't believe the clothes they were wearing were appropriate, they saw them as being unfortunate.
They wanted to show them that you don't have to work everyday for your food but instead you can get it in bulk.
And that although those straw huts are nice they aren't as reliable and as grand as the ones that they could build them.
There we go, the nosy Americans trying to push our way of life onto another culture.
There we go, acting like our way is better.
There we go, thinking that our way is the only way.
Who are we?
These people where completely happy before we stepped in.
And in this world where we are trying to reduce a person's footprint on the environment we go over to a perfectly happy group of people and change their world and increase their footprint.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't have nice things in life, especially if they were unhappy with the way their life was. But they weren't.
I think that we should have went there trying to learn something from them.
I think that if we would have shut our mouths and looked and listened a little harder we would have seen that simplicity is grand.
That you can be happy in spite of material things.
That perhaps we need less than we think.
That we can decrease our effect on the environment.
That if we didn't require so many resources (extra, not needed resources) to take care of our spoiled butts we wouldn't have to work such long days and that we could enjoy our families and our friends much more.
Of course that village is happier!
They take a few hours a day to gather the things they NEED and spend the rest enjoying their family.
So what can YOU do?
Simplify your life.
Quit thinking you NEED all these THINGS and instead realize it's just you wanting them. Reanalyze what you have to have and what you can do without.
It's as easy as that.
I hope to have more 'simplicity' posts coming soon.
We start a new series at church next Sunday and I'm eager learn more and more about this subject.
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