Back to Basics

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‘Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?’

Pope Francis (1936-2025)

We can be masters of overcomplication. Part of this is due to our being led astray, made to believe that we need to acquire, or need to belong to something, and so we pull out all the stops to make it happen. In reality, we never needed said item in the first place, and the overcomplication it engenders leads us into a place of discontentment and lack of clarity about where to go next.

Of course, some problems require complex responses. Before the complex procedure of procuring penicillin from mould and mass-producing it, disease wreaked absolute havoc on just about every society from the dawn of time. No-one in their right mind would say that medical solutions such as this are too complicated and therefore should be avoided for the sake of simplicity.

Nevertheless, let me suggest three areas where overcomplication has got the better of us, in which we would do well to get back to basics:

 Society: We live in a time of moral relativism in which we bend over backwards to understand people’s ‘complicated’ circumstances. The simple approach of God and family is a far superior platform to the web of intricacy in which we now find ourselves.

Relationships: The categories of relationships has expanded vastly. You can now be a friend, an online friend, a friend through a friend, even a friend with benefits! Let me suggest that this complexity dilutes the profundity of the relationship which it originates from.

Our place in the world: We can become beholden to a relentless aspirational pursuit focused on becoming the best version of ourselves, or ‘reaching our potential’. Such a path can be construed with complicated patterns and processes, none of which give us the stillness of mind to focus what we are supposed to be doing at our core.

Life can be challengingly complex, no doubt. But part of h2bh is to maintain our grasp on the place of simplicity and its virtue. This way, we will be guarded from thinking too highly of ourselves.