The Technology of Simplicity

Everyone has a different history, and our memories enable us to learn life lessons, in different ways; none of which are incorrect. In the short story, "The Technology of Simplicity" by, Mark A. Burch, the narrator reflects on his metamorphosis from an impatient young boy into an adult with a intricate mind brimming with cogitations. Some very significant lessons he learned are the ability of being insurmountably patient, and the strength to remain considerate and focussed in a materialistic environment.

While on hunting trips with his father, he is able to become exceedingly patient in anxious situations. His father taught him the technique of "still hunting" where they would sit "silently, motionless and endlessly patient,waiting for deer to come down the paths"(2). In order to counter-act becoming bored, his father enforces that he stays attentive and engaged in his surroundings. Soon he starts to appreciate the forest and "feel[s] less like a hunter invading the bush to get something from it, and more like a part of the forest

itself"(4). He spends hours and hours lying in the forest, motionless, yet still engaged in the life of the forest.  He even begins "to resent the occasional noisy intrusions of other hunters."(4) When he becomes an adult, he realizes the hunting trips gave him an insight into the world of meditation.

Being that he gained ability of intense patience at a young age, he has an advantage in remaining level-headed and thoughtful in a consumptive society. He believes that in our environment we are not even given the chance to enjoy or experience the things we have, but rather to receive them and ask for more. For example, on Christmas morning, the joy of opening a gift and exploring it transformed into a competition of quantity and "it was necessary to get on with the next thing, to stay in motion, to consume"(7). He believes that even a celebration of family and life has become a consumerist and commercial holiday. Not one in which we feel, and experience, but one carry on the cycle of quantification. However, through all of this he does not fall victim to his consumerist nation and still hopes for us to experience once again.

In life, people are learning lessons on various occasions, in various situations. The narrator of the story reflects on lessons that he learnt in his history that have made him the intellectual man he is today. He is able to become patient to the extent of being entranced, and the ability to remain composed and mindful in the consumptive and fast-paced society we live in.