Simplicity in the time of COVID-19

I woke up this morning to a drizzle at the marina. The sun was shining through the rain. It was a pretty sight. I also woke up thinking about simplicity, and what it means. The most comprehensive definitions came from dictionary.com, and here are three that are relevant.

(a)    freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts: an organism of great simplicity

(b)    absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc; plainness: a life of simplicity

(c)     freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.

Time and again, I ask myself, what is Covid-19 doing to us, and all that we hold dear? I think it is bringing us back to simplicity, and I suspect it is a long and painful journey.

We have lived our lives in the shadow of the grand pyramid named the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is a theory first proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. It comprises a five-tier model of human needs, and Maslow contends that needs lower down in the hierarchy have to be met first before an individual can focus on satisfying needs higher up the pyramid. At the very bottom are physiological needs – our need for food, water, shelter, etc. At the top of the pyramid is self-actualization – that desire to fulfill our human potential, that drive to be creative and original.

Those of us born into the first world, into stable families and societies have been catapulted up the pyramid through no merit of our own. Having our basic physiological needs met was never an issue. And so from a young age, we aspired to reach the higher levels of fulfillment. I suspect that many of our hobbies, likes and dislikes, are really attempts at not just self-actualization, but self-differentiation. God forbid that we are boring people, part of the nameless and faceless herd of humanity, without a distinctive flair and style, without original opinions, without a unique sense of humour, without connections to other people right at the top of the pyramid.

And so we dream of travelling to exotic places with unpronounceable foreign names, scorning the package tours and familiar locations at our backyard. We pick up hobbies that show off some unique part of our intelligence or disposition. We pay for memberships at exclusive places so we can be part of the select group. And some of us invest much time and resources into looking like we belong. Being plain, as described by dictionary.com above, is an insult that makes us recoil.
 

And then came COVID-19. Swiftly and stealthy, it infiltrated our lives and detonated the pyramid. It sent us all tumbling down to the bottom, where we found ourselves fighting over toilet paper. Forget air travel to exotic destinations. No more parties because one’s conscience cannot help but hear Lawrence Wong’s passionate pleas. Fewer trips to spas and salons, if not driven by fear of death, then by fear of a prolonged recession. And after 5 days of SHN, it’s not hard to decide if I should wear this set of pajamas or that. 

This reflection was about simplicity, but I guess to think about it, I had to start by describing complexity. When all that makes our lives unique and different is stripped away – as they are currently – what is left? The first definition of simplicity - freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts – apply that to our usually distracted, over-stimulated heart with its insatiable appetite for more, and what does one get? I think of two passages in the Psalms.

 

“One thing I have desired of the Lord,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the Lord

And to inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27:4)

“Lord, my heart is not haughty,

Nor my eyes lofty.

Neither do I concern myself with great matters,

Nor with things too profound for me.” (Psalm 131:1)

I think too of the words of the desert father, Anthony. “Wherever you find yourself, do not go forth from that place too quickly. Try to be patient and learn to stay in one place.” I first came across some of his writing in Henri Nouwen’s book, “The Way of the Heart”, as a young missionary struggling to adjust to life in the small town of Dili. I found my mind wandering and I fantasized about being elsewhere, in a more stimulating environment, doing more exciting things. I learnt the hard way, that staying in one place took genuine spiritual struggle. I am learning that lesson again, 13 years after I first became a missionary.

So in between naps and endless cups of tea and home workouts with resistance bands and more cups of tea alternating with coffee, I ask myself, what is the good life that can stand up to the shaking and turbulence all around us? What is it that COVID-19 cannot and must not take from us? And what should we freely give up because it is not good for us, and we are only seeing it now? Here is where we will have to learn to distinguish between style and substance, between necessity and luxury, between the temporal and eternal, between self-centeredness and other-centeredness. Our answers will likely vary, but I suspect the mental and emotional processing will carve a trail through the chaos and lead us to simplicity.