It's Complicated

Simply put, we overcomplicate. We all do. There seems to be a trendy sort of sophistication in complexity. Pithy likes trendy--clear up until they remembered their preference for the innocuous actual--(is that borderlining it?). The fact that no one understands you doesn't make you an artist. Over-analyzing can often lead to trouble.

This week bends our minds around paradoxes. Empty your mind--only then can you be filled. Education is gaining knowledge of your ignorance. Believe those who are seeking Truth--doubt those who advertise they have it. Mind pilates (that's pill-aht-ees Prudence ;-). While attractive super model minds do sound nice, we catch ourselves occasionally longing for yesterday's jumping jacks and soccer.

Don't get us wrong--we like our new words. Tarradiddle sounds good on a well-oiled tongue, but maybe we could just settle for "pretentious nonsense?" We like that we know the Chinese can't spell--that Toa Te Ching is actually said Dow Day Zzhing. That oughta be handy in saving us from some future embarrassment--some day when we need to look smart. But we find ourselves ready to bargain looking the part for the simple intersection of knowing what to do, how to do it, and the integrity to accomplish it.

After laughing at ourselves--or crying--or laughing so we don't cry--or meeting the concrete wall, we are ready to confess. Tom made peanut-butter pasta. It was weird and pasty and as perfectly awful as it sounds (no Kevin, peanut butter does not make everything taste better). Jerry burned the potatoes. The house smelled funny, and yes--he didn't realize they were burning and he checked the heater in his room first--on all fours, sniffing the floor. Things slip from our mouths and hover in the air long enough for us to realize how dumb they sounded--"I could mean so much more to you..."--and then we laugh and prefer the dumb words to what we actually meant. We stumble and oafishly manage, "That was deliberate." Funny thing is, it kinda was--the Universe's attempt to catch us at our blunders and help us realize that it's how you pick yourself up, not the fact that you tripped, that measures your smarts. It's not complicated. It's deliciously simple, and it satisfies.