ESSAYS
Apr 27, 2025
A Complex Quest for a Simple Life
"Our needs are few; but our desires are infinite"
"And pray, what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt?"
– Henry David Thoreau
In his memoir titled Walden, Thoreau recounts the two years of solitary life he spent by the shores of Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He lived in a small cabin he built with his own hands, the picture of which you can see below, sustaining himself through the nature surrounding him and leading a simple life there.
According to Thoreau, by the year 1845, people had already become the tools of their own tools. Humanity had reached a point where people were often starving, not due to a lack of necessities, but due to a lack of luxuries. Moreover, this situation was recorded 180 years ago, in a time when automobiles, telephones, and the internet did not even exist.
The blessings of the world have enslaved us. We are constantly falling into — or being driven into — the trap of needing "more." We are no longer merely the tools of our creations; we have become their slaves. We cannot even travel familiar roads without navigation anymore. We waste our minutes standing in line at restaurants simply because they have higher ratings. We wake up each morning to digital noise and fall asleep each night under the blue light of screens. And amid all these copy-paste lives, we still expect happiness from life.
As Marcus Aurelius said almost 2000 years ago, "Very little is needed to make a happy life." In other words, the first steps toward a peaceful life pass through a simplified way of living. Yet today, simplicity and cheapness have become confused with one another. Searching for happiness in a life removed from simplicity is like trying to find silence in the middle of a great noise.
The blessings of the world have enslaved us. We are constantly falling into — or being driven into — the trap of needing "more." We are no longer merely the tools of our creations; we have become their slaves. We cannot even travel familiar roads without navigation anymore. We waste our minutes standing in line at restaurants simply because they have higher ratings. We wake up each morning to digital noise and fall asleep each night under the blue light of screens. And amid all these copy-paste lives, we still expect happiness from life.
As Marcus Aurelius said almost 2000 years ago, "Very little is needed to make a happy life." In other words, the first steps toward a peaceful life pass through a simplified way of living. Yet today, simplicity and cheapness have become confused with one another. Searching for happiness in a life removed from simplicity is like trying to find silence in the middle of a great noise.
To me, the lines that best describe a simple life are hidden in the following verses by Yalçın Ergir:
You’ve got to lead a simple life.
For instance, as simple as drinking water when you’re thirsty.
Four will be the answer when you multiply two by two.You will have a single button for the device in your hand,
One button, like a single sentence,
Like the "I love you" you fearlessly utter
When in love, forever.
[...]Your watch will only show the time,
You will use your phone just to call someone.
To find knowledge in the quickest way,
Everything will be stored in your little notebook.Simple.
You’ve got to lead a simple life,
As if it could end one day.
Simple.
