08/03/2024
A SIMPLER LIFE
In 1973, Gladys Knight and The Pips released a song that was to become a classic music track. The song was called Midnight Train to Georgia.
Essentially, it tells the story of a man who is disillusioned with Tinseltown and decides to return home to his roots. Buried within the track are the lyrics, "... Said he's going back to find, ... going back to find, a simpler place and time."
To me, the simpler place and time are best reflected in when we were children. A time when curiosity and fun were natural states. A time when fashion, Facebook likes, updating Insta', prejudice, and fear did not form or dictate our interaction with the world.
There was a time when it was more natural to have mud, dirt, jam, worms and books welded to our hands than a mobile phone or iPad.
A time when giving and receiving affection, empathy, kindness, and outbursts of unbridled happiness and excitement were unencumbered by the adult conventions of defence mechanisms, social anxiety, embarrassment, or a fear of rejection.
Of course, I accept that many did not have the version of a childhood I’ve described. Equally, I will hold my hands up and admit that my childhood was of a different time.
Notwithstanding, there is an emerging (some might say a critical) need for us to slow down and consider how we might be complicating our lives and those of the next generation.
Like the protagonist in the Gladys Knight song, who needed to break away from what was hurting and disillusioning him, we too may wish to consider detaching from old ways of working (presenteeism), assessing (judging ourselves), thinking (negatively), acting (selfishly), comparing (ourselves with others), wanting (stuff we don’t need), and striving (for things that don’t matter).
The Buddhists say that attachment is the source of all suffering. And suffering can be found in fear, ego and loss - all debilitating characteristics of the human psyche. So, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that we can move towards a simpler and more peaceful life by detaching from the above.
I’ll leave the last word to another character, this time from a film. George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life enthuses to his Uncle Billy, “You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are? Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.”
I’ve already caught my train to a simpler life - I hope you catch yours too!
