My life is not complicated right now. It’s almost embarrassing to admit how uncomplicated it has lately been. I wake up every morning with nothing to worry about except what I’ll eat for breakfast, and if I want to read novels all day long, I can. Sometimes I do. It is really quite idyllic, which is why I am ashamed of the amount of time I spend inhabiting a world of dreams. That is to say, I am very foolishly trying to get away from this peaceful existence - I am wishing for bigger and better things.
Dreams are only beautiful things until they consume you, and then suddenly they are the very devil. Wishing is only a sweet pleasure until you have wished away everything that is real and landed in the land of Nonexistent Fancy. I have learned to find what is beautiful - I have learned too well! I no longer want what I have, but only what I can never get. It is a disease that eats away at you from the inside.
I have to take a step back. Two or three, if there is enough room for that. I must survey the kingdom I have created, all the swirls of color and movement, and realize that I have made myself sick on it. It is a cake too rich for me, but I have consumed it all. I have dreamt too long, and it is time to wake up.
There was an odd religious group which formed in the late nineteenth century. They were called Shakers, and their somewhat unique system of beliefs included the idea that procreation was sinful, which is why they died out in the 1800s. Much of their way of life and aesthetic died with them, which is a shame. The Shakers valued music very highly (which makes them all right in my book!) and they loved simplicity. In this, they were perhaps wiser than we can understand.
I first encountered the Shakers through their music. I loved this song when I was little, but I did not understand how profound they were. Or perhaps they are more profound now, now that I have tasted complexity and chaos.
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in
the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love
and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be
ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our
delight,
Till by turning, turning we
come 'round right.
I am an English major, and it is an affliction almost as encumbering as my love for the impossible. It has made me search for meaning in places that I should never have looked, but here I am, looking for hidden meaning in this Shaker song. Or perhaps not-so-hidden meaning. I can’t help it, when I hear that first line, thinking how true it is. How true that to be simple is to be free. The land of Where-We-Ought-to-Be, also known as Place-Just-Right – it is not a land filled with the huge, the grand, or the overwhelming. No, the valley of love and delight – such as we can find on earth – is a place marked by its simplicity.
My uncomplicated (and dream-filled) present life includes a balcony from which I can survey the city. It is not terribly exciting as balconies go, although it does provide all the perspective that being fourteen floors up can give. It has been a great help to me whenever I drift into wanting the impossible and the impractical. It is my portal to pure, untainted reality. There I can feel the wind on my face and can see a horizon that is full of things that are green and growing, and I am reminded that simplicity is best. The Shakers may have been confused on some points, but they hit the nail on the head with this one. To be simple is, really, to be free.
My very vaguely stated facts about the
Shakers come from Wikipedia, where you can find some less-vague information
about their history and their lifestyle (click here). Also, it is
possible to visit Shaker villages which are dedicated to preserving the
culture, if not the odd beliefs, of these long-gone people. I visited one
such place when I was about eight, but I think I would appreciate it more today
than I did then.
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