Monday, May 22, 2006

Simple

“I miss Mayberry, sitting on the porch drinking ice cold cherry coke,
where everything is black and white…”

I turned on TV to catch up on the news this morning, and The Andy Griffith Show was on. I hadn’t watched it for probably over a year, so I stayed and watched. Even though it was the Ernest T. Bass episode, I still got a refresher course on life. It’s amazing that a simple television show has so many great messages and lessons.

For instance, today I learned not to throw rocks through windows. I learned not to put my hand into the punch bowl. I also learned that a good suit won’t change who you are, but there’s someone out there for everyone. (I should know, after being married um, a time or two)

Then Mayberry ended… and Jerry Springer came on. I was yanked back into reality. The person who decides WB11’s schedule lineup should be executed.

My credo is a vignette written by Robert Fulghum, called “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.”

I love and miss the simple life. Recently, my life underwent a fairly dramatic simplification, when I moved into a smaller place, shed pressures like maintaining a 5,500 square foot house, taking care of a pool, paying a yard service and countless other complications and expenses.

Yet I feel like simplifying even more. We’ll see.

"...where people pass by and you call them by their first name... watching the clouds roll by... bye, bye..."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I miss dancing in the moonlight with my sweetheart.. in the driveway... with the radio from the truck playing a Don Williams song... and our children gazing, pointing and laughing at two adults that appear to have lost their minds... while we giggle at the moon as if its magical power has cast a spell on us... holding one another...swaying to the melody... simple, but so filling.

Anonymous said...

simplification has its own rewards. since my divorce (and the subsequent loss of the house, the cars, and the kids, and the dog) life has gotten much simpler in many ways. the small things are rewarding in ways they weren't before. don't get me wrong... i'm not stoooo-pid! i'd take all that complexity back in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

The next thing you do is quit work. Then you will have all the reasons in the world to simplify.

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

lovely—as is your new avatar

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

Which, by the way, appears to not only have been taken in a hotel, but to also have actual pee in the toilet. Classy Dave, classy.

Fantastagirl said...

Simplifying....sounds so easy- but it's hard to give some of that stuff up....

Lee Ann said...

Yes, those were simpler times. I also understand what anon said about life getting simpler after losing everything after a divorce.

I have that book...I have enjoyed it.

Me! said...

Hell I'm not even 30 yet and I already long for the simple life. Often times when I venture out to my grandparents house and take in the quiet sounds all around them it makes me wish for days as a kid. Like when the biggest stress was getting a hole in my big wheel while treking up their long driveway and not being able to peddle without it burning out. When licking the mixer blades clean after my grandma made a cake was like the best thing in the world. Or as my grandma put it only a matter of days ago, "I remember when you'd sit out there in that pasture for hours looking for four leaf clovers". Yeah, those were the days. Screw the bills, the job, the friends that disappoint us, the breakups, deaths, gas prices and blah blah blah. Take me back to Andy Griffith or Little House days any day of the week.

... said...

I have been feeling the simplify bug myself lately...makes me want to fill up bags for goodwill and get rid of stuff more than anything, but it also causes me to access life, slow down, and enjoy the moment more. After all, each moment only comes around once and then it is gone.

CP said...

Incidentally, if someone ever told me in kindergarten that, as an adult, there would never be another naptime, ever again...

I would have napped back then.

Simpler times.

CP.

Di Mackey said...

Oh ... I read out of order ... you like simplicity. I take previous question re:simple books back. (I can).