i wish i knew
at the mall my boss was an older woman named jeannie, who wore rose-colored lenses to protect her eyes from the white light, beaming through the skylight four levels above, glittering in the fountain, flashing in golden handrails and diamond rings. that white light, it could blind you. we worked in a cramped little concierge desk, giving out directions to people who earned my net worth in a week.
sometimes we got along, sometimes we didn't. sometimes she reminded me of my grandma.
she once told me i was behaving like a "petulant child".
she once explained that some people were envious of me, for having my entire life in front of me. that made sense, but i didn't know what to say.
she once advised me to "lead a simple life." that made sense, too. there's enough information streaming into our heads these days to drive anyone mad. why intensify it? i nodded my head and agreed with her.
of course, i spent the next few years of my life complicating it.
...
donny once told me that if you have a message you want to be understood by a large group of people, you have to keep it simple. the more complicated a message, the more open it is to misinterpretation.
my contention was that most situations are very complicated. there are almost always nuances, conditions and relative uncertainty for any given "truth."
given that, he said, there is always a simple way to explain it.