The Complexity Of Things

Neither Simple Nor Straightforward

Beneath a rotating night sky one hears the echoing call of tree frogs piercing the silence. The osprey shelters her nesting young atop the hydro pole, the deer lie still in their forest crooks, the Canada geese are huddled by the hundreds within a rock’s throw of the Great Lake and the coyote are on the hunt for a tasty morsel of food. This collective represents (as the theologian muses) “a complexity neither simple, straightforward, nor obvious.” How the night will end for each member of the ensemble is an open question which only the dawning sun and our flighted friends will reveal as the world awakens to another day.

Things are not as simple as they appear. Everything is layered—even as a cutout of the ancient city of Troy manifested multiple civilizations. By trying to simplify complex things we end up obfuscating the truth. Instead, we design a world created in our own image. Karl Barth comments upon this dilemma as he observes,

Life is neither simple, nor straightforward, nor obvious. Things are simple and straightforward and obvious only when they are detached from their context and then treated superficially…People think ‘simply’ when they pretend to know what they do not know…Genuine thinking is always strange to the world and unsympathetic. (Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans)

Perhaps the wisdom writer is on to something when she muses,

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter everything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5:2)

In our wordy world a solid case can be made for laconicism. Life is indeed complex. Answers are not always obvious. In our loquacious euphoria we become judgmental and hard-hearted. The end result is that we become unkind and unloving (which doesn’t exactly resonate with Christ’s call for loving God completely and our neighbour passionately).

As the London cabbie said to Uncle Andrew and Jadis the witch from the dying world of Charn, “Hush! Watchin’ and listenin’s the thing at present.” (C.S. Lewis, Magician’s Nephew). Good advice for us all.