The idea of a simpler life has been floating around in my brain for a while now. I was thinking earlier about how simple life must have been in the Middle Ages. Every Sunday morning the church bells would ring, and almost everyone in the community would flock together for Mass, where hopefully they would hear the Word of God. Then they would return to their homes, where they would have a farm or blacksmith or horse stables.
Society was more tight-knit in those days. Community feasts were existent. People would help each other out. They didn't know about catastrophes happening on other sides of the world, or homicide cases taking place in distant reaches of whatever country they lived in. Life was simpler, and had a slower pace.
Of course the more I think about it, the more I see how un-simple life really was. Things were harder back then. There was no guarantee you'd be able to provide for your family. It only took one bad harvest to hurt a family. Medicine was woefully insufficient compared to modern medicine. Infant death was common, as was death during childbirth. We did not know as much about mental illnesses, and our understanding of the world around us was seriously limited. You were basically forced to do the same job as your parents, even if you aspired for greater things.
Still, sometimes I envy the simplicity of that life. The modern life I currently live is not simple. I think I know why. There is so much information pushed on me everyday. On any given day I might hear about things happening in China or Sudan. Crimes happening in places that will never affect me. Thanks to the media and Internet I am exposed to endless amounts of ideas and events. This has given me a feeling of endless complexity of the world around me. There is just so much information out there. Information that someone in the Middle Ages would never hear, nor would he be concerned about.
When I think a simple life, what comes to my mind is just focusing on a few things that are really important to me, and ignoring the rest. What matters to me? My faith. My education. My work. Writing. Minecraft. Apologetics. Programming. Why should I listen to news about stuff that means nothing to me? Doesn't that just distract me from the stuff that truly matters to me, where I could possibly make a difference or contribution?
So how would I make this simple life? The key thing seems to be removing the sources of complexity from my life. Media, and the Internet. I have no trouble staying away from TV and radio. I hardly use either of them anyway since the Internet can function in the place of them both. The Internet itself is probably the biggest hindrance to my simple life. What I would basically need to do is stay away from websites that would hinder a simple life. Social media is a big source of that. As is a lot of the Internet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Let's talk a bit more about the complexity issue. I have discovered some things recently. I will never have all the answers. I will always be finding the right or better way of doing stuff. I will go to the grave still wondering some things, still hurt by some things. Not all will be made right in my life. I won't be able to convince many - heck, most - people that what I think correct is, in fact, correct. People around me will always be, to some degree, irrational and mistake-prone. So will I. Life is not something you wrap in a tidy bow. It's a messy, uncertain ordeal. I'll spend my whole life looking for truth, but I won't find all of it.
That's really the big thing for me. As I said before, I've been exposed to many ideas and opinions. Many lines of reasoning for all sorts of things - being Christian, being atheist, being Buddhist, being conservative, liberal, libertarian, doing college, going right to career, so on and so on. There's so much out there. It seems like everything is up for debate. Even that previous sentence.
This feeling of inadequacy, that I will never understand everything because there's so much to consider, can lead a person to do one of two things. Either they might embrace relativism and perpetual indecision. You're sure of nothing, therefore you neither agree nor disagree with anything. But that kind of life is unstable, uncertain, and unsatisfying. I can see no other result than a life of cynicism coming out of that.
The other route, which I prefer, is to just pick something to hold to. Is this option any more perfect than the other? Perhaps not. But it's better, if you ask me. Just find something to hold to. It could be wrong, yes. But if there is no absolute truth, as some are inclined to say, it doesn't really matter. No amount of debate matters. I could spend my life following all the logic in the world - but I would never come to a decision, and I would never have stability or certainty. Thus I choose something. It's better than nothing.
I don't think I need to be perfectly correct in everything I believe or do. That's impossible for a human anyways.
Thus, there are a few things I pick. I choose to be a Christian, because the existence of God makes sense of a lot of things. I choose to be Lutheran, because I feel most closely connected to the Early Church and God himself there. I choose to be a progressive creationist because it's the best way I can understand how things came to be. I choose to be a right-leaning libertarian, because I believe people should be allowed to exercise their free will, while still applying some common sense. I choose to pursue a career in Web development because that is where my skills best lie.
Am I right in all of these things? Maybe, maybe not. But it's something. And I'd rather have something, than nothing.
Society was more tight-knit in those days. Community feasts were existent. People would help each other out. They didn't know about catastrophes happening on other sides of the world, or homicide cases taking place in distant reaches of whatever country they lived in. Life was simpler, and had a slower pace.
Of course the more I think about it, the more I see how un-simple life really was. Things were harder back then. There was no guarantee you'd be able to provide for your family. It only took one bad harvest to hurt a family. Medicine was woefully insufficient compared to modern medicine. Infant death was common, as was death during childbirth. We did not know as much about mental illnesses, and our understanding of the world around us was seriously limited. You were basically forced to do the same job as your parents, even if you aspired for greater things.
Still, sometimes I envy the simplicity of that life. The modern life I currently live is not simple. I think I know why. There is so much information pushed on me everyday. On any given day I might hear about things happening in China or Sudan. Crimes happening in places that will never affect me. Thanks to the media and Internet I am exposed to endless amounts of ideas and events. This has given me a feeling of endless complexity of the world around me. There is just so much information out there. Information that someone in the Middle Ages would never hear, nor would he be concerned about.
When I think a simple life, what comes to my mind is just focusing on a few things that are really important to me, and ignoring the rest. What matters to me? My faith. My education. My work. Writing. Minecraft. Apologetics. Programming. Why should I listen to news about stuff that means nothing to me? Doesn't that just distract me from the stuff that truly matters to me, where I could possibly make a difference or contribution?
So how would I make this simple life? The key thing seems to be removing the sources of complexity from my life. Media, and the Internet. I have no trouble staying away from TV and radio. I hardly use either of them anyway since the Internet can function in the place of them both. The Internet itself is probably the biggest hindrance to my simple life. What I would basically need to do is stay away from websites that would hinder a simple life. Social media is a big source of that. As is a lot of the Internet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Let's talk a bit more about the complexity issue. I have discovered some things recently. I will never have all the answers. I will always be finding the right or better way of doing stuff. I will go to the grave still wondering some things, still hurt by some things. Not all will be made right in my life. I won't be able to convince many - heck, most - people that what I think correct is, in fact, correct. People around me will always be, to some degree, irrational and mistake-prone. So will I. Life is not something you wrap in a tidy bow. It's a messy, uncertain ordeal. I'll spend my whole life looking for truth, but I won't find all of it.
That's really the big thing for me. As I said before, I've been exposed to many ideas and opinions. Many lines of reasoning for all sorts of things - being Christian, being atheist, being Buddhist, being conservative, liberal, libertarian, doing college, going right to career, so on and so on. There's so much out there. It seems like everything is up for debate. Even that previous sentence.
This feeling of inadequacy, that I will never understand everything because there's so much to consider, can lead a person to do one of two things. Either they might embrace relativism and perpetual indecision. You're sure of nothing, therefore you neither agree nor disagree with anything. But that kind of life is unstable, uncertain, and unsatisfying. I can see no other result than a life of cynicism coming out of that.
The other route, which I prefer, is to just pick something to hold to. Is this option any more perfect than the other? Perhaps not. But it's better, if you ask me. Just find something to hold to. It could be wrong, yes. But if there is no absolute truth, as some are inclined to say, it doesn't really matter. No amount of debate matters. I could spend my life following all the logic in the world - but I would never come to a decision, and I would never have stability or certainty. Thus I choose something. It's better than nothing.
I don't think I need to be perfectly correct in everything I believe or do. That's impossible for a human anyways.
Thus, there are a few things I pick. I choose to be a Christian, because the existence of God makes sense of a lot of things. I choose to be Lutheran, because I feel most closely connected to the Early Church and God himself there. I choose to be a progressive creationist because it's the best way I can understand how things came to be. I choose to be a right-leaning libertarian, because I believe people should be allowed to exercise their free will, while still applying some common sense. I choose to pursue a career in Web development because that is where my skills best lie.
Am I right in all of these things? Maybe, maybe not. But it's something. And I'd rather have something, than nothing.