Live Uncomfortably

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Everybody says it, and it’s true: simpler is better.

I’ll be the first to sing the praises of skydiving, or bungee jumping, or any type of extreme sport. I’m typically nervous while doing these things, but afterward I get a wonderful, natural high.

But who has the time or money to do these activities frequently. If I waited only for these times to enjoy moments in my life, I’d maybe have 3-5 good days a year.

The complicated things in life are noisy. There’s too much to think about. You spend all your time thinking and very little of your time living. Why do people switch to Mac’s? They’re much simpler. In skydiving, most of your time is spent preparing: you put your gear on, wait for your instructor, get in the plane, and then finally jump. It’s a complicated process.

Yet these type of activities are all we talk about. Somehow the little things that make us happy don’t reveal themselves in conversation. Maybe we think they’re trivial, or that no one will care. But I don’t think that’s the case.

Let me give you an example of something that happened to me on New Year’s Eve this year.

My New Year’s Eve plans were supposed to be complicated. I was going to go to a friends apartment/warehouse in Buenos Aires, eat some BBQ, pre-party a bit, and then go out to some clubs.

Instead of a night full of taxi cab rides and expensive drinks, I ended up around a table with some great company. At mid-night, when the ‘ball dropped’ and while we ate and drank, fireworks that the local kids had bought, whizzed and exploded above our heads.

Then, as though it were meant to happen, a little girl got up and started dancing to a song my friends and I love. Appropriately titled, “All My Friends,” by LCD Soundsystem.

There was something so magnetic about this tiny dancer, that the whole group couldn’t help but join in. And, every so often as she danced, her little legs would give and she’d fall on her backside. And in unison, all of us would fall with her until she regained her balance and started to dance again.

It was a moment. A simple and beautiful moment. There’s a video of it below (it’s probably the worst video EVER, but I still like it).

In my opinion, this makes a 10 times better story to tell than ones about skydiving. And this story is 10 times as simple.

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What simple pleasures do you find in your life?