Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity! - H.D. Thoreau

One lives in simplicity when experiencing the world every day with a new set of eyes, and is always amazed and surprised by the beauty in their surroundings. Basically, it is experimenting the world with the naiveté of child, with no preconceptions. Thoreau says that children are wiser than experienced men :

“Children who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is by failure.”

The simplicity of children is also similar to that of the ignorant man, indeed the simplicity in the French Canadian is inspiring for Thoreau who wonders whether he was “wise as Shakespeare or ignorant as a child”. He finally concludes that he had natural simplicity nevertheless he could never see the spiritual side of the man. Thoreau viewed him as authentically simple and sincere but believed that he was intellectually deficient. Simplicity in values and lifestyle even though they can be naturally embedded in someone, must also be coupled with an intellectual aspect, where one understands the meaning of his simplicity and purposefully adopts a simple lifestyle. Indeed, it is only through self-awareness of the process of a simple life that one can flourish. One should make it a daily habit to live in simplicity “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity” (thoreau).

The oxymoron rich poverty illustrates well the idea of a rich being living a conventionally poor life; a rudimentary and authentic lifestyle composed of essential needs and love. Thoreau impedes his reader to carry out such a lifestyle through his beautiful comparison “cultivate poverty like a garden herb”. People must dedicate themselves to realize a poor lifestyle. Only with humble foundation can one build a tower high in the sky. One can find the significance and sufficiency within his own means, once giving up grasping to it so tightly. Consequently, the world will be improved once everyone and everything stops needing to improve. Indeed, this point is covered by Thoreau who said that the “vibrant self-confluent with the living world creates, simply enough”. In sum, sufficiency leads to clarity and poverty teaches simplicity.

Another aspect for a simple life is to live in the present, unconstrained by time. It is a hard task to do in our scheduled society, synchronized to efficiency, and where time is synonymous to money. If we ponder upon the way we live our lives, Thoreau questions “why should we live with such hurry and waste our lives?”. This rhetorical question, is probably unanswerable by the majority of us, because it is the way society is build and therefore we must all follow the same pace. Instead, one could follow the example of the hero in Thoreau's tale “As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way”. Evidently, there must be a willingness from the person to take the time, and to create time to live a simple life. This task is probably the most difficult in such frenetic and chaotic surroundings in which we live, but it is exactly why it is the most powerful task of the human in order to find peace with himself. Each individual is master of how his day will, go about. It is our perception and the way we look upon our world and events that molds how they go along.

I have an appropriate example about this, it is anecdotal but it illustrates a wider meaning that can be applied to different issues. I had been writing a paper on this topic with over 8 pages of notes and the next morning my computer crashes. The timing was terrible in exam period where all you need is our computer and had no back up. I thought it was very ironic that it happened while writing a paper about the simplicity of life, it was like a challenge to test whether I could follow all that I have been reading about. I therefore went there with a positive attitude, and without apprehension to wait for ages in a crowded apple store on Saturday in Christmas season. It turned out to be a better experience than it could have been, I became aware of my surroundings, and people’s frenetic need for consumption.

To conclude, life is not about desperately pursuing happiness, rather it is to live simplistically. In order to do so, one must find himself, be true and authentic to himself so that he can flourish in the world. Thoreau impedes his readers to live a simple life with the repetition three times followed by an exclamation mark “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”. This shows his frustration in people's exuberant way of living. When living in simplicity, one takes events as they come, and he no longer tries to fight against them, instead he enjoys the process of each situation as a new experience. Indeed, when one is no longer fighting against the odds, the most unexpected things happen if you are open to these.
When attuned to the world and its surrounding, one knows and is present. Self-realization is the fulfilment of the highest potential and duty of the human being. There is no secret prescription to be simple, many authors have tried to tell others, either by philosophising, or by experiencing themselves and bringing back to the world their understanding. Ultimately, no one can tell anyone what they should do to find happiness and simplicity in life, because the answer lies within them. People will only understand it for themselves through their own experience. All the knowledge brought by others are just instrument to light the fire within each individual.