A Simply Grand Notion

Simplicity, it seems, can become very complicated. UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute -- not a simple name, by the way -- held a Mental Health and Simple Living Conference to explore simplicity on a recent Saturday. It wasn’t that simple. It took complicated minds all day to figure things out. Actually, it wasn’t all that recent either. But complicated world affairs simply postponed thinking about simple. You know how it is in this modern country, especially Southern California. Even concerned Americans, it appears, can view news photos of an Afghan family of four on one motorcycle, ponder acquiring a third car and not for a second see any disconnect. Doing anything, however, is so complicated.

Saturdays (hang on, only three more days) used to be simple. They came once a week and were, for most, essentially free days, absent the obligations of the other six. Now, think what you must do on Saturdays -- the driving, shopping, dry cleaning, oil changing, recycling, gardening, bill-paying, reading, malling to make new billing. It never ends! Probably, you’ve already got a “to-do” list for next chore day. What happened to RE-creation and recuperation?

Many feel anxious, even overwhelmed, by modern America’s meticulous accretions of material goods, time-consuming rituals and protocols, most devolving from new gadgets and gizmos that, individually, were supposed to simplify life but, collectively, complicated everything beyond comprehension. By the time you decipher a gadget’s instructions and master its arcane protocols, you lose it, break it or crave a newer version that, unnaturally, has a whole different set of procedures and buttons. The attending anxiety produces more compulsive buying, eating, drinking, worrying.

Since yoga by itself is insufficient, finding a simple life with good weather, hot showers and cell coverage is increasingly attractive, though naturally complex. So Carol Holst and a band of like-minded, well, simpletons founded Seeds of Simplicity to educate about “voluntary simplicity.” Even the phone number is simple: 1-877-UNSTUFF.

Part of the education was a simplicity conference. How some 150 people simply got there was amazing, given the simply awful traffic in L.A. these years and the fact that Angelenos are always going somewhere. Judging by the ubiquity of heavy traffic, no one ever seems to arrive, or when he does, it’s time to head back.

The Simplicity Conference’s simple message, according to The Times’ report, was that America has become a gluttonous, bloviated society controlled by its own excesses. Like not getting enough meetings during the week so take one more come Saturday? Simply put, simplicity is a grand idea. It turns out getting there requires motivation and a uniquely personal and as-yet-unwritten Thomas Guide. No instructions included.