Concerning Simple Solutions

Many centuries ago, Isaiah said that there would be certain ways marked out for men—marked

out so plainly that “wayfaring men, though fools, “could make a mistake. There are many principles so plainly marked that men need not make mistakes, but it sometimes seems that simple answers aren’t

what is wanted. Rube Goldberg has given us many an illustrations 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 u his bed—and tip him out of it—at a certain time in the morning. But a much simpler solutions

would be simply to set the alarm clock, and then get up when it goes off. A straight line is the closest

distance between two points. But sometimes it seems that we don’t want a straight line—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 speaking legalistic language, when a simple statement of right

or wrong would often be much better; that we want to go far around in explaining processes and

procedures instead of seeing (or accepting) the simple fact of cause and effect. William Faulkner

suggested that some of the solutions to some of our problems are much more simple than is sometimes

supposed—not necessarily easy (not even perhaps palpable) but simple—as simple as spending less

than we earn, simple as leaving a bad habit behind, as simple as truth and honor and honesty, 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 kindness, simple common sense, will 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 painless

way of solving grievous problems. 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.