Simple Complexity

"Disclaimer: the following contains a slight tad of religious belief and symbolism to drive home my point. If you are not a Christian, feel free to skip that section. I still try to defend my points and opinions without the religious imagery in subsequent paragraphs."

Drivers make fifty to one hundred decisions per mile in moderate traffic. None of them would be able to tell you that though. Despite thinking throughout the entire ride, relying on years of experience and knowledge, they'd turn around and say it was nothing all the same. That is the essence of improvement, of mastery: to look at what was once perceived as complicated and truly believe it to be simple, and yourself dumb for thinking it anything else.

But to be a master of something does not make that something simple, it just gives the illusion of simplicity. For example, I understand what it means to be polite and try to give everyone a fair shake, but I know I owe nothing and don't let people try to push me into something I don't agree with. To me this is a very simple and clear thing, but to many aspiring polite and respectful individuals, it is a hard concept to get their head around.

They were told to always be polite and kind to others, with the people who told them that assuming they'd know that there are exceptions to that lesson. Because, obviously, that is a very simple thing. Of course they'd know that they shouldn't let anyone use their kindness and generosity to make them do something untoward, right?

No.

No they don't, because that is a complicated concept, one that accounts for factors that those people don't naturally try to identify. Now what was meant to be a lesson on decent manners becomes a lesson on not letting yourself be pushed around, and then that becomes a lesson to not push other people around. There is a gap in perspective between parent and child that prevents parents from teaching things to their child without giving them bad habits: it is a person with sight telling someone blind to see.

This not only makes the process of raising someone very difficult, but also very easy to categorize the one who is being raised: to stick them in boxes and molds that don't truly fit them. After all, when Johnny acts out, it's ridiculous and a cry for attention. He's just like how I was growing up: stupid. And when Marry talks on and on about her dreams of being an actor or an astronaut, she's just a kid jumping from thing to thing. She couldn't possibly be discovering what she wants. No need to look into that or take one second to listen for once; they're the ones who need to listen and obey. 

Listen and only be told half-stories, half-morals, being completely ignorant about situation and circumstance they were never told about with their all-encompassing, always right, never wrong life lessons. Obey and never rebel or fight back against control, never learning how to lead or think, becoming more and more dependent and weak as time goes on.

This is the secret tragedy of mastery. To become so strong and untouchable, you forget what it was like being touched: being strangled by complexity. A boy could never and will never be as much of a man as his father is if that father denies him the same opportunity to experience, learn, and grow by himself that he had when he was just a boy, railing against his father in the same way the boy now wants to. That is why, as I personally see and believe, that God, the father and creator of all, sits back and does nothing for us; because that is how we learn to do everything.

Sure, he sent Jesus to guide us, but did he ever deny us his gift of free will? Did he ever force us to believe by undeniably, irrefutably proving his existence or Jesus's nature as his begotten son? 

No.

God, creator of Heaven and Earth, master of the cosmos, the one who made the very laws and rules reality follows, steps back and respects us enough to let us feel and think for ourselves.

God believes himself unfit to tell you, me, or anyone else what to do.

So what in the world gives those people who made us the right to do that exact thing? Nothing at all, I'd say. They should guide, advise, and support; never lead or force. Not only does it not work when it comes to making us individuals capable of fulfilment and joy, it also prevents us from being individuals in the first place. People capable of being fulfilled in the first place.

Holding on too tight breaks us and makes us more lost and confused than we could have ever been or were without them.

And imagine, all of that pain and struggle, that festering resentment and hatred, the unhappy life someone could be leading for the rest of their existence, coming from a simple misunderstanding of each other and what it means to be an adult: a veteran of life. To perceive as simple because of the glasses of experience, not because of simplicity. To think that it is okay to force your views of simple onto your child due to a lacking of one thing, one piece of wisdom.

The merit of letting go.