THE SIMPLE LIFE

One year ago, almost to the day, I weighed in at 227 pounds, buck ass naked. I said goodbye to my favorite food, buttered bread and a few other fatty foods. Today I only weigh 178 pounds.

In 1984 my wife had a heart attack and I made up my mind to quit smoking. I set a date, the following Monday at 10:00 AM to quit. At that time I sat back in my chair and took my final drag on this vile and unhealthy addiction. I have to admit that it was the best jolt of nicotine I have ever experienced.

In 1979, I realized that I had become an alcoholic. I drained the last delicious drop from the bottle of 86 proof bourbon just before I checked myself into a detoxification center for a two weeks stay.

I am sober, hale and hardy. As a matter of fact, I am fast becoming a fine looking specimen of what is known as "widow bait!"

Other than the relative short stay in the detoxification center, fearing the DT’s and possible death without proper medical care, it didn’t cost me one red cent to accomplish these things. I did not seek anyone’s help or for that matter advise. I simply made up my own mind to quit drinking, quit smoking and overeating. IT WAS AND IS THAT SIMPLE!

I use these experiences to point out to you that most of our social, political and religious problems have relatively simple solutions.

I see two ways of thought that the human mind tends to take to determine the philosophies that guide their lives. The conservative mind seems to be very simplistic. The liberal mind seems to be very complex. It is like the difference between analysis (liberal) and analogical (conservative); thus we have the right and the left.

Let us look at the three basic institutions, family, church and government.

The liberal family will take the complex approach to life’s problems. They invariably trust group thought more than their own intellect. They are forever reaching out to "professionals" as a guide to fit their lives into a system of pre-planned security rather than the freedom of individual choice.

The conservative family takes a much more simple and direct approach. They think for themselves and prefer freedom to anything and if problems arise they use a common sense approach to find a simplistic cause and solution.

In the Christian church the liberal usually reflects doubt about his faith; it just couldn’t be that simple! They tend to cut themselves free from Scriptural authority and drag in reason, tradition and experience to muddy the waters.

The conservative is less likely to doubt his faith and simply believes that the Scriptures are divinely inspired and contain the basic truths for eternal life. The philosophy of a Christian conservative's faith is so simple that it has confounded most of the philosophers and thinkers throughout history.

In government, especially since the Roosevelt administration beginning in the 1930’s, the liberal mindset has been more government in every aspect of our lives, local, state and national. They are willing to trade "a free soul for false security!" In essence, they prefer that someone else do their thinking for them. Life to them is complex and no one but the government is capable to handle these complexities.

On the other hand the conservative mindset is less and less government at all levels. The causes of life’s problems are basically simple and we should be free and have the guts to handle them for our selves.

Liberals gets things mixed up. They cannot understand the difference between "simple" and "easy." If you tell a liberal you have a simple solution they automatically think that you mean easy. It was very hard for me to loose over fifty pounds. I carried the desire for nicotine for several years and it was extremely hard to stay off tobacco. I went through hell itself in order to kick the alcohol habit. Doing what had to be done was difficult but there is nothing complex about it.

I was plagued by, drinking, smoking and gluttony for a number of years. Other people have similar problems. Is it hard to stop doing it? Yes. Very hard! Is it a complex problem that requires a half dozen professional people? Hell no!

I have been involved in a project for well over a year called "Tomorrow’s Kids." (Please see the article Chapter ) Our children are killing one another right and left. The cause is very simple. They have never learned the difference between right and wrong. It does not mean that the solutions will also be simple in every case. In this case it is very complex indeed but it does mean that simplicity is the place to start looking for answers. The mindset of conservatives is to look for simple solutions first and add complexities only if they are needed. Liberals don’t see things this way at all.

Most liberals made fun of Nancy Reagan when she suggested that we "just say no" to the drug problems. They could not get it through their thick heads that she was absolutely right and that it will never be solved until people say no!

Liberals are forevermore searching for an easy way out of life’s problems or thinking that a panel or a committee will magically figure out a solution if we throw enough money at these problems.

The simple life, the happy life, a free life is found in the basic foundations of conservative thought as we search for simple solutions.

Liberals cannot reach this far!