The Simple Life

by Megan on April 6, 2010

It’s very in vogue to want to simplify your life. There’s something appealingly nature-y about it. I like the idea that you can get grounded and go back to “the simple life” without ever having to go sleep on the cold ground (I am not a big camping fan).

While reading 72 Ways to Simplify Your Life (which, despite the fact that I want to poke fun at the length of this list, is a good read), I started thinking about whether I even want a simple life. Maybe, a life that’s stressful but also exciting and intellectually stimulating is a better bet.

This brings me to Penelope Trunk’s post about how your life can only be happy or interesting, but not both (she wants to be interesting). I think living life with a goal of being interesting is a terrible idea. It’s like that Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.” I think that Penelope is looking at the definition of being happy in too narrow of terms. I know, I could never be truly happy unless I was learning (on the job, in life, etc.).

You can reach your own conclusions here because I haven’t wholly settled on mine. Can’t I have an interesting, simple, happy, exciting life?

  • http://isaokato.com Isao

    Yes, “72 Ways to Simplify Your Life” – isn’t that 71 ways too many?
    I read that post from Penelope too. I might also fall into the wannabe-interesting category, but I would like to re-frame my goal as having a fulfilling life. Life can be interesting or boring, but I would want to be doing something that matters, no matter where I am at. Happiness can be a bonus that comes along when we are on a good track, which we shouldn’t expect (but want to) all the time.
    Anyhow studies say that almost half of our happiness is pre-determined in our blood, so probably I shouldn’t make too much of a personal issue out of it…

  • http://www.imathinkingwoman.blogspot.com Meg Flynn

    I like you’re take on this. I think you can have an interesting, simple life and be happy because it will make YOU happy to keep things simple and always be learning something new (which makes things interesting) Does that make sense? Maybe some people don’t like their life to be interesting (like the Chinese you mentioned who, I presume, would prefer days that play out as expected) but it probably depends more on how an individual defines “interesting” for his or herself.

    So that’s my answer: that happiness and interesting-ness aren’t mutually exclusive; happiness comes from you and what you want.