The Sydney Opera House – an example of great simplicity in action (as well as great complexity)
New year resolutions aren’t really my thing, beyond preparing a list of what I’d like to achieve in writing – read better, write better, submit more, do more creative journalism, make sure to enjoy it all, that kind of thing, which I say to myself every year. However, on a recent drive south, good music on the car-stereo, a hot hot hot sky and landscape and potentially catastrophic summer conditions all around, it came to me quickly, a list, three words: simple, good, imaginative – that’s the kind of life I want to live.
Simple
Life, given half the chance, will always complicate itself, because it is random, chaotic, and formless. Being someone who likes a bit of routine and order, I find that keeping things simple helps to keep me on the straight and narrow. So, simple finances, simple goals and expectations, even simple house-furnishings. Of course, this is often easier said than done, because to reach a point of great simplicity takes a brain that can traverse great complexity. Consider the Sydney Opera House: a simple idea, a simple structure; but what extraordinary technical skill to make it all a reality. Still, a simple life is the one for me. If I can manage it.
Good
What is good? Something that enhances life? Or perhaps simply (huh!) doesn’t diminish life? Is good nice? Not necessarily, and probably not. Is it generous, honourable, thoughtful, loving? Yes, it may well be all these things. Is living a good life the same as writing a good story? I’m not so sure – is it good that Brett Easton Ellis gave us American Psycho (1991), a novel that’s about how not to be good? Yes, it’s good that we have that work in our world, but not in the way we think. Perhaps a good life is one in which that person and the people are around that person feel more able? I’ll run with that.
Imaginative
At first, the word on my list was ‘creative’, but a creative life can be nothing more than making handmade birthday cards, which is inherently a good thing, but it’s not quite what I’m looking for. Imagination seems to me to be more all-encompassing. It is an imaginative act to write a story – in every possible way. But it also requires imagination to solve a particularly complex household maintenance issue. Or to resolve a financial matter. Or to mend a broken friendship. Imagination may also be required to approach the design of one’s life in new and exciting ways. In an interview I did this week with literary blog Whispering Gums, I referred to something Ben Okri wrote in his magnificent collection of essays A Way of Being Free (1997): ‘The imagination is one of the highest gifts we have’. He really is right.
What are the key words for you this year?
Under the counter or a flutter in the dovecote 
14 comments
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January 12, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
broadsideblog
Great post!
Innovate, connect, explore. Active verbs. Fingers crossed…
January 12, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Wow, that was fast! And I love your key words. Yes, innovate, connect, explore. They may well connect to mine as sub-categories. Hang on, this has all of a sudden gotten more complex!
All the best for your 2013.
January 12, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
whisperinggums
Keep it simple Nigel! Love the post – so simple and yet even three little words suddenly become complex when you start to tease them out.
“Good” is the real challenge. As you say it doesn’t always equate with “nice” but then what does “good” mean. Your definition is close to something I’ve been thinking recently and that is in terms of helping others be better NOT in a didactic, holier than thou sense, but in the sense that by living your life with compassion/empathy (are they the same thing?) and integrity you can’t help, I hope, but have a good (ha!) impact on those around you. But there’s the rub, you have to live with compassion/empathy and integrity and that’s not easy. It is though my resolution for the year, particularly the compassion/empathy bit, because it’s too easy to get caught up in oneself sometimes.
I love your definition of “imagination” because under your umbrella even I might be able to squeeze in!
January 13, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Sue, ah yes, how even the simplest becomes the most complex when you dive beneath the surface. And I agree that ‘good’ is the real challenge, especially when you strip any religiosity from the word.
And good point re. actually living this stuff – it’s all very good to write a post about it, or write anything about it for that matter, but actually living it day in, day out, now there’s the challenge. Empathy is so important, isn’t it, but geez it’s hard. And integrity – well, how can we start heading in that direction? Identify principles, then hold onto those principles no matter what? I’d love to be able to do that, I really would.
I do hope you’re able to squeeze in beneath the imaginative umbrella!
January 15, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Gabrielle Bryden
Now you are making me think! I like simple and imaginative – I’d add (for me) beauty – not so much in the physical sense but in the aesthetic, heart lifting type of beauty – I want to surround myself with ‘beautiful’ people with hearts of gold, beautiful art that I want to keep looking at, beautiful words which make me feel something huge is happening, beautiful plants and animals and landscapes – I’m getting rid of the ugly and stupid (eg, all words from climate change denialists – not reading any of that stuff anymore). Don’t hold me to this though – haha – some of my writing may be dealing with the ugly and stupid (but that can be a form of cleansing).
January 15, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Ooh, Gabe, I love your comments, and your year’s stated objective. And this is just amazing: ‘Beautiful words which make me feel something huge is happening’. Something huge is surely going to happen for you this year, I feel sure of that.
January 16, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Gabrielle Bryden
ooh I hope so (maybe Gina Rinehart will hire me to teach her poetry – haha)
January 18, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Well now, Gabe, that would be a beautiful thing to see. Perhaps ‘Teaching Rinehart to write’ could be the name of your collection?
January 18, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Gabrielle Bryden
Now that would be ‘brave’ – haha – but it is giving me some ideas to chew. Hope the fires are nowhere near your place Nigel!
January 26, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Gabe, thanks for your concern – no, there have been no fires in the immediate vicinity of Goulburn, though they are in the broader region and every second day or so there’s the distinct waft of bushfire smoke. And now with these floods and storms up north – isn’t summer in Australia a….um…a potentially lethal place to be?!?
January 26, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Gabrielle Bryden
You’re not kidding – it’s still pissing down here and we’re now surrounded by water – if it comes up 1 foot it will be in the house – yikes! There have been 2 mini-tornadoes not far from us this afternoon – at Bargara beach and Burnett Heads. My internet keeps dropping out – hoping the power doesn’t go out too. The roads are all flooded so no way to get out. Should be alright, if the rain eases – the water goes away pretty quickly. Wish me luck Nigel!
January 26, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Yikes indeed! Sending you all the good luck I can muster!
January 27, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Gabrielle Bryden
We’re ok now – water stayed out of the house – but we’ll be cut off from town for about a week – lucky I got lots of supplies – it stopped raining today but last night about 4am I was woken by the biggest wind (like a category 1 cyclone) – running around like a chook without a head shutting all the shutters and blinds in case it was a tornado – I got the chooks in the house just in case – hahaha – dramarama 🙂
January 28, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Nigel Featherstone
Gabe, I’ve been checking out news broadcast about the situation in Queensland and it does sound concerning. Glad the chooks are safe and sound in your house – they’re not causing mischief, are they??
Perhaps there should be a fourth key word for 2013: survive.