The Basics of Complexity

[gurdonark]

I heard a wonderful talk by a judge at a local bar association the other day. He was speaking on helpful tips on how to effectively present one's case to a judge. One of his tips really struck me. It was something to the effect that one should not tell the Judge "this is really complex and will take me forever to explain", but instead tell the judge "this is a really simple matter, but I'll need a few moments to lay it out". This made sense to me, as I've found that a case can be laid more persuasively if one can set out the forest rather than every damn limber pine in the forest.

Ironically, later in the speech, the judge talked in very general, election-is-near terms about a personal legal matter in which he was embroiled (details not particularly relevant). At one point, he held his hands wide apart, and said "To tell the whole story would be so complicated that the documents would be THIS THICK". One of the softer-hearted personal injury lawyers in the audience gently pointed out to him the contradiction by asking "how many minutes would that take, Your Honor?", and we all had the appropriate "laugh with, not at, the judge" kind of chuckle that lawyers sometimes get to have during nice luncheons.

The judge was a nice fellow, and I don't mean to pick on him in particular. But today I'm wondering how much we all place importance upon the sheer complexity of our lives as a sort of defense mechanism against facing what is before us and how people react to us. I'm not saying, of course, that life is always simple--in commercial litigation and in my dealings with my friends and relatives, I've learned that life can be decidedly complex.

But so many times, I hear folks excuse the things they do with long explanations that, if they could only be properly understood, would cover a multitude of sins and shortcomings. I suppose one reason I hear those long explanations so many times is that I frequently listen to myself, and I am very good at feeling misunderstood as an excuse for every shortcoming I have. But how many times are we truly misunderstood, and how many times do we just imagine we wear a cloak of mystery which, in fact, was tailored by the same fellow who did that invisible "suit of new clothes" for the Emperor?

People do odd things for complex reasons. But so many times, I hear folks express the feelings that because they are complex, they should have added leeway to be discourteous to others, or to seek concessions from others to which the "rules of the game" don't entitle them. I'm not intransigent about "rules"; if someone is a weaker chess player, give him or her knight odds to even up the game. Handicap golfers, don't execute the mentally impaired, all that. But I'm sad to report that while some of us truly are complex and misunderstood, I find that in life a lot of people are not that hard to fathom. Their choices are their choices, not ineffable mysteries.

I meet so many bright people these days--I wonder if intelligence, like herons, eagles, and pelicans, made a big come-back when DDT was banned. I'll bet genius will return now that the neurotoxin/weedkiller Dursban is being phased out. But I find as the years go on, I value a sort of simple brightness. I am not much impressed anymore by that critical brightness which is mostly about knocking the brightness or talent of others. I guess there must be a reason, besides merely spending less time around university libraries, why I read far more novels but perhaps a bit less literary criticism than I might have done at 21. I suppose, indirectly, that there's a reason that I feel a mild sense of relief that I never had to write some academic work which deconstructs some novelist whose pencil I would not have the talent to sharpen. I am instead attracted to people who get in, tell their story, paint their picture, describe their image, and share who they are, without fear, without condescension, with the complexity in the work, not in the explanation.

I guess I am attracted to mail art and self-publishing and LiveJournal because I am no longer held sway by the notion that creativity is so darn complicated. I don't know how a few handful of universities and a few corporate conglomerate publishing companies got the "word out" that nobody is worth anything unless they are creative through the "right channels". I sure don't know how art galleries and art magazines did it, as I'm not sure they really have patrons per se so much as rich tourists of a sort. But I do know that creativity and self-expression is one more way in which one can convince oneself that one is so darn complicated that one can never get one's work on the page. I tend to think that the problem is instead that most of us are much more simple than we imagine, and what we get on the page pretty much is who we are.

The implications of this are dire, of course. If intelligent, grammatical people are to be assumed to express themselves as they are, then their shortcomings can't be a matter of being misunderstood. They might even be a matter of being understood. Then the rejection they feel might be "real", and not rejection through misdirection of their true, noble selves. The result could be actually having to face the world and the market and the people out there as they are, and not as they would be if only they understood us.

There is indeed a lot of misunderstanding out there--don't get me wrong. Heaven knows we couldn't have a world where we let children starve because we're so darn dense we cannot even build a global anti-hunger network if we didn't have a lot of confusion and irrational misunderstanding. I also will offer the contradictory thought that many advocates of "simple living" live lives much more complex than I ever imagine mine could be on its worst day. But sometimes, some days, I want to meet folks for who they are. I'd hate to fail to meet them, if the reason is that they are so concerned that they are just too complex to show themselves.

Comments

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

I think my life is an incredibly simple one. Maybe I deliberately make it that way to compensate for the intricate labyrinth that goes on inside my head. I once said in my late twenties, that I was looking for *rules to live by*-- I felt overwhelmed by choices, directions, etc..., I think that's a common theme at that stage of life, when so much is still spread out before you. I didn't join a cult, or embrace an *ism*-- but I was lucky enough to fall in love and know this was the right path. I've been on that path for 18 years and it's simplified my life considerably. Having a child gave me the purpose and meaning I felt was lacking before. Daily problems that everyone faces are easier faced with a partner, and again I've been very lucky that those problems haven't been critical or destructive. There's a twisted labyrinth inside my head that takes me to some glorious highs and some hellish lows--but those *complexities* don't influence my outward life, they haven't complicated it, or destroyed it. Early on I learned the importance of smiling. Which is what makes it so hard for most people to even fathom what I *go through*.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes. I think that the simplest statements about it are the hardest, and the ones people most want to explain. When you say "I hurt", "I get down", and "this is very hard for me",
or even "I get help with this problem from professionals", it's just all to easy to say "here's my detailed explanation for what you are going through", instead of just accepting the simple truth that is part of what you experience.

[onesoul.livejournal.com]

Indeed, my pollyanna feelings are inspired here. YES!!! Everyone has the skills and ability within.. YES!!! I can admire the most beautiful yet simple visions of life and expressions. YES!!! There is a love found in the ease of life. Yes to it all!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I have a good bit of pollyanna in me, too. It's not that I disbelieve in talent...it's that I believe in looking for good.

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

You elect your judges? I didn't know that... do you really?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Federal judges are appointed, for life. But in Texas and many other states, state court judges are elected. I really dislike elected judges, although here they are quite popular.

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Yes, you'd think that the collective wisdom of the bench/senate should be enough to make its own decisions when it comes to appointments.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

In appointment states, the executive officer, usually advised by a bar committee, makes the choice. In some states, the judge stands for confirmation elections, but is initially appointed. This system, the so called "Missouri plan" works well.

Interestingly, the reason why elected judiciary is so entrenched in TX is the populist reason.
UK judges had been very pro prosecution, pro creditor. This tradition carried into the colonial states of Virginia and the Carolinas.
The folks who settled Texas included lots of folks who left the southeastern states to make a new life. The notion was that they wanted a judiciary that was not "bound up" with the "establishment" in the way UK or "colonial" states were. Nowadays, of course, the world's turned upside down, as unfettered campaign finance laws permit large corporations to compete to outspend injury trial lawyers and judges are far too politicized, left or right.
Our TX Supreme Court chief justice has been courageous in advocating an end to this system, but he has not succeeded yet.

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for explaining all that. Just on another note entirely, remember when you posted your poetry book and my relative returned it by mistake? [I was in between moving then and didn't want it to get lost, ha]. I think you got that book back and then I gave you my current address and you sent it to that one(?). Well, I still haven't received it. It's been a couple of months now, did you send it surface mail or air/surface?

I hope it hasn't got 'lost' or anything in the post?

*Still waiting eagerly* :-)

yours,
-Peter

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You know, Peter, I forgot to post another. I think I've got your addy in my filing cabinet, and as this is a weekend in which I get things done, I'll see if I can't get it in Monday's mail!

[i.livejournal.com]

that took quite a few minutes to read.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

:) yes, it should have been stated much more simply, as I did not have anything really complex to say....I'll say to myself: "journaller, heal thyself".

[miscelenaclosed.livejournal.com]

On the surface, my life is simple, too: I work in a job I enjoy. I'm a single mom. I have family in the area. I have friends with whom I enjoy spending time.

The facts are simple. It's the motivations that start making life complex. Feelings. Emotions. Impulses, instincts, interests.

That said, I've found that most of the time when I'm feeling misunderstood, if I step back and am honest, those are the times *I* don't really understand me, and so I certainly can't explain it to anyone else.

I have found myself thinking and saying "It really shouldn't be this complicated" in a lot of different contexts lately.

Maybe life really IS complex, and I just want it to be simple in much the same way that I want it to be fair.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent counterpoint to this post.
Although it says almost the opposite thing, there is some way in which I want to say both ways of looking at it are true.

I may not believe in complexity, but I sure believe in paradox.

[miscelenaclosed.livejournal.com]

Agreed about paradoxes.

Life is both oh-so-long, and all-too-short.
*smile*

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

oh-so-long and all-too-short..

yes, and we are all Goldilocks...looking for "just right".

[jenny_evergreen]

*tilts head* So, essentially, what you are saying is that many people hide themselves behind a veil of complexity that isn't real in order to avoid rejection/negative judgement, and that maybe it's better to not do that so much?

It also seems that you are saying life's a lot simpler, in general, and with exceptions, that we (humanity) seem to make it, and, also, that we should be willing to take responsibility for our choices rather than cloaking them in a magic "coat of complexity." Would that be what you are saying?

I like the judge's suggestion. It's particularly good in that, by using the language he recommends, one doesn't suggest that the person one is talking to is in any way not clever enough to understand what is being said. I admire that kind of simple kindness.

You do seem to also mention that you find yourself also less inclined to criticize others and thereby build yourself up, which I very much commend. =)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I have been critical enough for one life already. I want to learn to take more of a break from being critical during my remaining allotment. I read your comment and was reminded of George Harrison's Within You Without You, about the people "who hide themselves behind a wall...of illusion...".
Maybe it is all simple. Maybe it is all complex. But I sure aspire to simple kindness.

[jenny_evergreen]

*nods, smiles* Simple kindness is a Good Thing.

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

I always find myself wondering what it is that inspires these types of posts...Is it something you've read on livejournal of is it self-referential? Or something else entirely. I never can tell! Care to share what inspired this?

To repond to the post-proper...I think the world is immensely complex. And that it can be a mistake to oversimplify. As for people...we're complex, too, but hiding behind that fact can be tiresome. I want things to be simple and find that I over-complicate, not that I'm complicated. In fact, I usually feel quite simple-minded when I can't figure out why I can never seem to get what I order in a restaurant. I feel very misunderstood!

I very much dislike the "dumbing-down" of society. It encourages complacency. And excuses inexcusable behaviour. I saw this a lot when I was a fifth-year at university and I ended up in a class with a lot of freshmen. They were under the impression that all of their opinions were valid, simply because they held them--informed opinions or (most likely) not. This may be getting far a field from what you were saying in your post, but i think it's all related. We need to think about things, examine them, scrutinize, in order to understand and appreciate. Complexity allows for possibility, infinite possibility. Which is exciting and scary, but therein lies the beauty. Sorry, now I'm really rambling.

Oh, creativity, seems to me, to be inherently complex! I'm curious...what made you decide that it isn't?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Let me think on what inspired this post. Although some good few of my posts have LJ roots, this one is not really about LJ (the only real antecedents from LJ are a post that onesoul made about being able to express oneself without fear of betraying secrets (a poor paraphrase, but that's what I got out of it) and the thread I'd had since I'd posted my own (heaven knows I focus on myself) "secrets are banal" post.

One "real" core, though, is my fear that we have two different cultures appearing. One is the "dumbed down" culture to which you allude, and about which I don't really write in this post. The other culture is an academic culture which is no longer in touch with life as it is truly lived.

A "second" core is the way in which I continually hear complex explanations offered as excuses for simple, fairly inexcusable behavior. I hear this over and over in my real work life, and I don't really mean from clients.

I have this ideal in my mind of bright, caring, intellectual, forward-moving people.

I am not a "creative" person by nature. But all my bursts of creativity are incredibly simple. The product may be quite complex, with allusion and hidden meaning. But the creative impulse? A ray of simple sunlight. An insight.
A willingness to leave behind fear. That is SO simple!
I'm intrigued that creativity for others is a dark/demon/twin, apparently. Very interesting.

[asphalteden.livejournal.com]

It would seem to me that creativity need not be complex; but as with most things, it often is. But as long as it doesn't have to be, it's quite alright... Like these journals you can be as spare or as embellished as you like. And perhaps is this the true argument here? Spare setups vs. embellishment?

Creativity often seems to stem from an individual attempting to express what is simple to him or herself, but appearing outwardly to be quite a revelation to others. Of course, the means of the expression also seems to complicate things. I have all of this within me, but how to talk about it?

Anyway, Gurdonark, about your post:

I have always felt an issue with concepts like "true noble self," and I think many people operate within the idea that "well you don't really know me; the inner me is beautiful and perfect." And of course I believe this is a sneaky illusion for people to have, where they can fool themselves into believing their foibles and ideosyncracies are mistaken impressions of their true selves. I think the world might relax a bit if they take your advice and "face the world and the market and the people out there as they are, and not as they would be if only they understood us."

It may be that people gravitate to the path of least resistance, where it is easier to believe the rest of the world has flawed perception rather than the individual simply being flawed. We see countless artists and writers hiding behind this defense. And I wonder if many art movements are directly inspired by becoming so nebulous and ineffable that they are essentially inscrutible. I know for certain many young writers are interested in automatic writing and the work of the "beats" (as an example) for this very reason. It's easy to imaging jumping on someone else's style to conceal the lack of your own, I guess.

It's funny how it is not OK to be flawed in our lives, even if all humans are essentially flawed beings. A silly conundrum, if you ask me.

Anyway, great post, as usual. It never fails to floor me how regularly you put down such depth of thought so often. Where do you find the time and inspiration?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I think you have a real point about the permutations of complexity in creativity. The journal analogy is very apt. I also think that a lot of attraction which people have for automatic writing, dada, etc. is culturally a bit misplaced. In the France of 1880 through 1930 or so, a certain rebellion in a certain way was essential, to find "what is new". Now, the same ideas--outre in an outre world--are less revelatory than self-indulgent. I don't much care for my post's position in this morning light, as it stakes out a position too strongly, when the truth is much more...complex. But I tend away from the lawyerly talk out of both sides of my mouth from time to time.

I think that people have a hard time engaging what is really before us in this culture. Hence, the retreat into nostaligic rebellion, whether surreal or punk or mod or garage punk or goth or what have you. It's so much easier to make a fashion statement and to find good music to which to drink beer than it is to effect change. Heaven knows I'm no good at effecting change, either, and I don't even get to wear cool mascara or drink Pete's Wicked Ale.

Thanks for the compliments. When my posts are most involved, curiuously, that should cue the reader that my work is most busy. I read and write more when I am truly busy; it's a mind in gear thing, I guess.
It's the only time my creativity is...simple.