Concerning Simple Solutions

Many centuries ago, Isaiah implied that there would be certain ways marked out for men—marked out so plainly that “wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” There are many purposes and principles so plainly marked out that men need not err therein, but it sometimes seems that the simple answers aren’t what is wanted.

Rube Goldberg, creator of cartoons, has given us many an illustration of the needlessly complex means men sometimes seek to arrive at simple solutions; for example, a man may devise a complex mechanism that will tip his bed up—and him out of it—at a certain time in the morning. But a much simpler solution would be simply to set the alarm clock, and then have the courage to get up when it goes off.

It will be remembered from mathematics that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. But it sometimes seems that we want to wander around in the wilderness: that we want prescriptions with unpronounceable names; that we want to explain things in wordy ways—to speak in legalistic language, when a simple statement of right or wrong would often be much better; that we want to go far around in explaining economic processes and procedures instead of seeing (or accepting) the simple fact of cause and effect.

As suggested by William Faulkner, some of the solutions to some of our problems are much more simple than is sometimes supposed—not necessarily easy (not even perhaps, particularly palatable) but simple—as simple as spending less than we earn, as simple as leaving a bad habit behind, as simple as truth and honor and honesty and integrity, as simple as repenting—as simple as the Ten Commandments, as simple as the Sermon on the Mount, as simple as the Gospel of the Man of Galilee.

The fact is that simple honesty, simple humanity, simple economics, simple laws, simple commandments, will, if kept, offer the solution to many of our most pressing problems. That’s what is frequently meant by getting back to first principles.

There may be no absolutely painless way of solving a grievous problem. There may be no really painless way of repenting—or of paying debts. There may be no easy, effortless way of working for what we want. There may be no altogether pleasant and palatable way out of anything—but there may be a simple way, if we will face the facts and not try to do everything as if it didn’t really have to be done.