Friday, May 25, 2007

I started to draft a little post regarding simplicity for the Sunday Scribble people and the more I worked on it the more complicated it became so I decided to just write in a stream of consciousness style about the word Simple. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Attempting to live a simplified life seems to be the next step in attaining peace and a certain spirituality. There are shelves of books about ‘keeping it simple’, some of them quite complex. Of course picking up these books would add to the clutter and chaos.

“Real Simple” is a magazine we get – I saw a copy of it at my chiropractors and in weak moment, thinking I could reach Nirvana, (the state not the band) by subscribing to this magazine, I ordered it. Now the back issues lay scattered through out the house - the subscription has run its course and every other day I get a not so simple notice that I must renew my subscription or my simple life will implode with complexity. I’m not so certain that making window cleaner out of dog urine is such a simple thing anyway so I will let the subscription lapse.

As a young boy I read the Little House series…yes boys read the book too- you want to read something "peculiar" in that? Anyway, I thought to myself “Oh to live in a simpler time just like the Ingal’s family” I said this in my best Scarlet O’Hara accent, which might be a little "peculiar". Remember how simple their Christmas’ were? - A shiny red apple was one of their presents. Laura got a little doll that Pa made out of an ear of corn and Mary got the bladder of a pig blown up like a balloon. What a simple and lovely life…yea that sounds like a crap Christmas to me. If anyone gave me a doll made out of corn I’d give them some frozen pea “diamonds” or an empty cigarette box "iPod" so they could listen to Alabama (The band not the state). They were so happy in these simpler times that is until Little Mary got struck blind by a some disease like brain fever something you might catch from the bladder of a pig…..

Ok I’m trailing off here. This stream of consciousness business is way too complicated for me.

15 comments:

Lucy said...

haha I've never read or watched "the praire" but if that's what Christmas was like, I'm glad I missed it. Cute post!

Karyn said...

Oh my.

I loved the Little House series - still do.

But yeah - I always thought that sounded like some serious crap ass Christmas to me.

That post was so funny I choked on my water.

~Michelle~ said...

Loved your post, really funny!

JHS said...

Bahahahaha . . . omg, I read all those books and thought, "I wouldn't want to live like that." :-)

Crafty Green Poet said...

I enjoyed the Little House on the Praire tv series but wouldn't want to live like that. But voluntary simplicity is about choosing what is important to you and getting rid of the unimportant clutter, its not about self imposed poverty. Vinegar is a decent window cleaner if you want to be simple, why were they suggesting dog's urine?

gautami tripathy said...

I agree. Those books which tell us about simple living are usually too complicated.

Reaching nirvana, I think ony Buddha could manage that!

Elspeth said...

I read the Little House series too. I agree their life was simple. I thought their gifts, etc. were great. The ability to delight in the simple things of life as if they were 'gold'.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Simple is in the eye of the beholder, I think; I liked your stream of consciousness.

Kamsin said...

Seems like we've made an art form of making the simple complex and then find ourselves wishing for a little more simplicity!

Patois42 said...

Sognatrice is right about simple being in the eye of the beholder. (And certainly not in the bladder of a pig!) Fun post. I like your streaming.

Anonymous said...

This was so funny! Wait --- I'm living in the Little Yurt on the Tibetan Plateau!!! Oh, my gosh! But I won't give anyone a yak bladder for Christmas. Yuck!

Anonymous said...

You've touched on another simple thing for my list -- having a good laugh!! Very funny post!! Love the dog urine/window cleaner image!

Parisian Cowboy said...

I've never watched it and feel this should have been a funny experience. And your post was funny too. See ya.

Unknown said...

Funny and true, all of it. Great post!

m.m.crow said...

just getting back from vaca and catching up on my favorite blogs. i fucking love this one. my girl and i read all the books (& and then continued the series with rose's books, too)..... i live on a farm, relatively simple, but think i would simply die if i had to do it without the conveniences of modern technology. fuck building a house with no power tools.