My Simplicity Ambition

 

Finding the beauty of Simplicity could be the most ambitious of all projects yet. It would seem Simplicity is a coveted prize for humanity in the day and age which we live. Whilst we strive to be occupied, engaged and on the go for ever higher levels of attainment, there seems to be a gnawing need for the nourishing that exists only in the simple.

Simplicity in the form of ordinariness, predictability, quiet assurance and some sparkle of reciprocal love. Not bought with money or power. Whilst there is no great sin in the pursuit of success, there is great disservice to the soul who now cannot rest, and the heart that no longer feels. Ambition, we have been told, is used to scale new heights for mankind, though most often to gain more influence and power over decisions. Decisions that sway our markets and rule our nations they say! Yet with each wave of illustrious promises from the elites, consequent missteps or lack in judgement often negates any promise, widening further the gaps of the original depravity.

Alas, how has humanity progressed beyond the cloak of a gleaming cover? Life has been extended for most, but without substantial gain in real purpose or deeper connections. Perhaps we have even sustained massive losses I surmise. We are unable to function well in the realm of intuition, imagination and symbolism anymore, unlike the times of our ancestors, whose passion fueled truly aspirational stories. When was the last renaissance? The collective re-narration of humanity stories to transform its outcomes, believing in the common good, has become a subject of hobby or entertainment. It’s not a real job, I have been told. We have not found any greater purpose to provide our new generation a new lease of life, but an ailing earth, despite the accumulation of wealth. We have instead created generations of young who are lost, mired in social disconnection and for some, courting enthralling darkness to feel alive.

Ambition though, can be good treatment for the pain of mediocrity, and medicine for fear of insignificance in a sea of a billion faces.  Ambition triumphs over decades of long wait in sheer obscurity. Unfortunately, unchecked Ambition also seems to consume humans - whole. Ambition swallows up our real identities like the lurking figure in the dark that steals, sheds our uniqueness like chaff, rigging us to become an army of shiny drones that exudes a mainstream air of cold superiority. “Are you a robot?” we are often asked these days. Perhaps.

Can our hearts beat and feel again? Are we capable of active imagination to re-narrate the inane stories of narrow Ambition we have heard thus far? I have a new sort of Ambition. An Ambition to seek for the Simplicity that nourishes us humans, the clarity without the gleaming outer cloak. Pursue the ingenuity that lays beneath the gloss of drones, passion begging to be harnessed. The inspiration of originality in spite of our vast differences and ill-fitting shapes beckons. The symbolism of a collective dreaming again for a larger purpose, we must embark. Can we be small but significant, fragile but powerful, separate but together? This is the time for a new order, not dystopia. This is the time for big Ambition of an alternative kind. Let’s pursue the call to bring back the human essence – the ultimate quest to Simplicity and new hope for abundant souls.

Han Li June