Count Your Blessings #104 – Elegant Simplicity

I really like things that are elegant in their simplicity.

Books are a good example of this elegant simplicity. In one respect a book is just a set of pages with ink on them, bound together with some glue. How simple is that! But a book is also very elegant. Walk around any book shop and watch as people pick up a book, they hold it with care as if it’s something special even if it’s a £3 paper back on offer.

Interacting with a book is very simple too, you just open it and read it. People don’t need to be taught how to use a book, although there is a funny video on YouTube that may be evidence to the contrary. But it’s more than just simple, reading a book is a very elegant experience. I can read small pieces of information off a screen all day, but ask me to read pages and pages of text and I’ll have the book any day.

Pencils are another example of simple elegance. Take some graphite and encase it in wood, simple. Hold a pencil and start to draw with it, elegant.

I think that one of the reasons that I like quotations is that they are simple and the good ones are also elegant.

“Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home” Phyllis Diller

“Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.” Unknown

“Is there life before death?” Graffito

Simple truths elegantly put, elegant truths simply put.

There is a book in the Bible where simply elegant truth is stated it’s called Proverbs.

“The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin.” Proverbs 10:8

“If you search for good, you will find favour; but if you search for evil, it will find you!” Proverbs 11:27

“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.” Proverbs 12:15

“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” Proverbs 25:24

A great theologian () was once asked is he could sum up what was most important about his life’s work, he replied with the words of a simple song that used to popular in Sunday Schools:

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Simple and elegant.