Simplicity or Complexity

Which Do You Think Is the Shortest and Easiest Path to Elegant Living?Many times we believe that happiness, joy and elegance come from the more complex things in life like riches, fame, and lots of material things. The simple seems just plain boring.Yet, some of the most beautiful things in life are just plain simple.

We can start with a few of our basic senses to explore this concept.

Sights

For instance, let’s look at furniture. Man with his ingenuity has come up with wonderful ways to make furniture that conforms to our needs and our budget. He has learned how to take particle board, pieces of wood, and some other interesting ingredients thrown in to make a functional and many times a visually appealing piece.

But, is it truly better than the simple chair made solely from a tree? If you take a look at the functionality, beauty, and quality of the piece most times the simple, natural, solid wood chair outlasts and outperforms the more processed chair. All these without the outgassing of chemicals that were used to make the more complex chair.

Smells

Let’s take another example: fragrance. We all seem to love that which smells good. We enjoy scented laundry detergent, scented fabric softener, decorative fragrance dispensers, etc. But, which do you prefer, the fragrance of the decorative plug-in or the alluring aroma of a rose?

Tastes

Or how about a store-bought, frozen peach cobbler? They usually come with quite a list of ingredients added to maintain flavor and freshness. Contrast that with the taste of a home-made cobbler made with fresh peaches, pure cane sugar, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, and a flaky handmade crust. Or better yet, just a sweet, juicy peach. Which of these taste better?

The next time you have a choice between the complex and the simple, try the simple.

I’d love to hear about some of your simple preferences.