Day 240 – Simple, Straight Forward, No Fuss

240/365 (August 28, 2011) – I love calla lilies. Enough that I used them two years ago for a wedding bouquet that I tied myself. They have clean lines, don’t pretend to be anything they are not. They hold a simple beauty that belies a strength of form.

I like people that share these qualities. People who are straight forward, up front, no fuss, low maintenance, and know what they want. Fussiness irritates me. My father was a fussy person. Once he flew into town for a fancy dinner when he was awarded a very prestigious title in his field, the highest achievement a Chartered Accountant can get in BC, he was made a Fellow.  He brought a dress shirt for his tuxedo but wasn’t happy with it. I took him around town to a dozen high end shops where he tried on over 20 shirts. He bought about half a dozen and at the end of the day, wore the one he brought with him. That kind of fussiness drives me around the bend. I am a ‘know what you want, then go get it’ sort of person. People who want ‘this and that and then want something else because that wasn’t quite right and something else just must be that much better than what I have right now‘ are doomed to unhappiness as far as I am concerned since nothing and no one is ever ‘quite good enough’. Life is about compromises in form and function.

Nature on the other hand, has crafted exquisitely formed creations that deserve to be admired for their beauty. They have evolved to fit a specific niche, always pushing the edge of the boundaries, and their imperfect curves and colours are imperfect only in the eye of a human seeking something that will never exist – perfection.

The unsatisfied soul will probably always seek something that doesn’t exist and, in the end, will likely never be fulfilled. Maybe that’s why there is such a high divorce rate, everyone expects that the person they are with is perfect and that the initial hormonal high won’t end. We are so addicted to that perfect personal “high” that when it ends we think something is wrong instead of realizing that when anything matures it softens at the edges, it gets better because it grows more solid. And maybe that’s why humans seem driven to buy more, bigger, better, faster, prettier objects. Because someone else has something we don’t, or because what we have must be sub-standard because, well, we have it! And if we have it and someone else has something else, then that something else must be infinitely better because we don’t have it!

Just look at the calla lily. It is pliable, yet rigid. It flexes, but it retains its shape. Beauty with a touch of rigidity. I think I could stare at a calla for hours and never be dissatisfied. every different catch of light will highlight something new. There are probably a hundred ways to photograph a flower like a calla and I’d never feel like I needed a rose to make life better.

Simple.

Just like life should be.