* * * * *
SIMPLICITY
Dear Reader:
This is a simple essay by a simple person about simplicity. An essay (from the French essai, meaning “to experiment”) is an experiment to find out how much a person knows about a topic, and this is my experiment about simplicity. The world often seems thoroughly complex and problematic to me, and I want to find out if there’s anything out there that’s plain, straightforward, and simple. I am using five genres in my exploration – a paragraph, a character sketch, a set of game rules, a recipe, and a poem. I hope my essay is so simple that some kind of simple light shines through the words.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Salsich
* * * * *
I realize more and more how important simplicity is to good teaching, but I also realize that it’s not easy to be a simple teacher and run a simple classroom. One of the trickiest skills I’ve had to learn, and am still learning, is how to be completely straightforward, direct, and down-to-earth in my work with students. It sounds odd to say that being simple is a “tricky” skill, but that’s part of the irony – that simplicity is one of the most complex qualities a teacher has to acquire. As the song reminds us, it’s a gift to be simple, but it’s also a talent I can consciously develop and refine. I can, for instance, practice distilling my lesson plans down to the point where both the goals and the procedures are utterly clear – no frills, trimmings, or add-ons. I can also simplify what I say in class: less shooting from the hip, more silent pauses, more thinking before I speak, fewer words but more carefully laden. This in no way means my teaching should be dull. Simplicity is not lifelessness. One of my favorite definitions for “simple” is “humble and unpretentious”, qualities I admire in a teacher – but they don’t imply dullness. A river, to me, is one of the simplest marvels in nature, but it’s loaded with the opposite of dullness. It basically does what rivers must do, simply flows where all rivers must flow, but does so with indescribable liveliness and force. I guess I’d like to teach in a strong but simple way, the way a river flows.
* * * * *
She is 19 years old and has lost almost everything. Her mother died suddenly in a car accident last month, her father has been in and out of jail for what seems like forever, she lives in a broken-down apartment building, and her beloved cat Chester is desperately ill. Sometimes she sits with Chester all morning and stares out the window at the branches of a bare tree on Tremont Street. It’s probably an ugly tree to most people, but she loves the look of the branches. That tree has survived for maybe 50 years in the midst of the tumultuous complexity of the city. It just stands there and hold its branches proudly up in the breezes and pollution and sunshine. There’s nothing complicated about that tree. As she holds Chester and watches the tree turn and bend in a breeze, she understands something about simplicity. She’s lost everything, but she has her plain, unadorned, loving, and dying cat in her lap, and she has the straightforward, simple, and shining limbs of this tree.
* * * * *
RULES FOR THE GAME OF “GETTING SIMPLE”
1. Players must bring at least 25 “things” in their lives that they really don’t need.
2. Player #1 rolls the dice, and places as many of his unneeded things in the center as the dice indicate.
3. Player #2 rolls the dice. If the number is less than the Player #1, Player #2 must take and “own” the unneeded things from Player #1. If the number is greater, Player #2 may deposit the corresponding number of his or her unneeded things in the center.
4. Game continues in this fashion, until one player has no unneeded things in his or her possession, and is declared the winner.
Note: The winner in this game always feels a little fresher, a lot freer, and very lucky to have made his or her life a little simpler.
* * * * *
RECIPE FOR A SIMPLE LIFE
1. First, make a dump run with all the stuff in your life that’s unnecessary, needless, pointless, and superfluous. GET RID OF IT ALL.
2. Next, call three people on the phone and say something like, “I was thinking of you and just thought I’d give you a call.”
3. Then, go somewhere as slowly as possible. Walk around the block, maybe, as slowly as you can. Think of it as a reverse race, in which SLOWNESS is the winner. Or driver your car somewhere, but go 5 miles UNDER the speed limit.
4. Sit and do absolutely nothing for as long as possible. See how long you can do nothing at all. Try to set a personal record for the longest time doing nothing and going nowhere.
5. Listen to your breathing. Be amazed by it.
* * * * *
SIMPLICITY
There was the simple flame
of the candle on the table,
and the straightforward flow of minutes,
and the uncomplicated kindness of the waiter.
The darkness, too, was undemanding,
just stars shaken out across the sky
like salt, just lights in windows
wishing walkers and drivers
an effortless, trouble-free night.
THE END
