Embracing Einstein-Entry One

"Simplicity is the Answer"

And so begins the first entry into “Embracing Einstein”, an attempt to provide the Metaphysician’s musings into a digestible form, a form that allows those of us who are not geniuses to learn to live life at a higher and (hopefully) happier state.

My goal is to take his words and examine them closely in the hope that they will become simpler and easier to understand; and through this examination, the attempt at providing an application of his wisdom to our everyday lives will follow. With that in mind, I will honor Einstein’s instructions and (simply) begin.

In the quote above, Einstein seems to be saying that our inclination is to complicate things or make them harder than they have to be. To muck them up and make our problems almost unrecognizable from their original state. What’s the obvious solution? What’s easier? What’s right in front of us? These are the questions I think he is asking us to employ when we are stumped by life’s dilemmas.

Is the answer an apology? But instead of trying this simple human response, you develop elaborate arguments in your mind (and possibly for your friends to hear) on why you should not apologize? That you are right or have been harmed in some way? And so this situation is dragged out and made much, much worse and is now, yes, complicated instead of simply put to rest with a simple apology.

Is it pulling up your shirtsleeves and getting your finances in order the simplest route? But instead you download Excel or Quicken and begin a complicated analysis of the State of Your Financial Picture and ruminate about spending excess and possible shopping addiction and the materialism in our society today and…make your bill paying so much more complex than it needs to be?

Einstein goes on to say, “God always takes the simplest way.” So if we are praying or consulting our therapist and asking our friends endlessly “What is the answer here?” is it possible that Einstein is saying it is already answered? Did God(dess) already provide you the answer and you didn’t like it? In the resistance to the obvious, the simple, did you reject it and decide that was too easy? For a situation you are struggling with right now as you read this, step back and ask yourself, “What is the simple answer, the simple way?”

Doctors are urged “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” This is a way to remind physicians to not look for exotic diseases, but the most obvious cause, explanation and cure. That one can make things worse with endless tests and hypothesis. That complexities can create more problems than they solve.

And so it is for any situation perhaps. Is it possible that a relationship has simply run its natural course and is over? Or will you hop on the zebra and analyze, attend therapy sessions for years, read countless books, spend hour after hour worrying and wondering what another person is thinking? Or will you just have a discussion about what you want and what you are thinking and ask for the same in return?

Is it possible that your teenager is experiencing hormonal overload and will grow out of this stage? Or have you decided instead that he is destined for a life of crime or living in your basement at the age of 37?

Has the “zebra” option worked? Would the simpler approach of just meeting our fear and our feelings right smack in the face and doing what needs to be done to accept reality--and our role in it--be a better way to go? What is the simplest way? What hurts in the short run, but will make things better in the long run? What is your simple fear about? Can you put it into one, simple sentence?

Consider choosing the simple way first. The “bigger and more complex” is always a second option.