Even something that appears at first glance to be easy and should be easy, never, ever is. I think that this is an eternal principle. At first glance from afar, the vermillion cliffs look like a fairly homogenous mass of red rock with cliff faces alternating with slopes of tumbled rock and dirt dotted with trees and brush. As you get closer, layers begin to appear and even within those layers are more layers until finally close up you get the following perspective:
All this is a roundabout way of saying that even simple projects inevitably turn out to major undertakings in our household. Like getting a new washer and dryer. It turns out that ones we bought are taller (with the pedastal) than the ones they replace. Normally not a big deal but in this case a very big deal because the cupboards are too low, by 2 inches! So, I get to remove the old cupboards and.....wait for it......repaint the wall! Although you know it's really not going to stop there because if you paint one wall you need to paint the rest which will mean moving everything out, patching the holes, painting, putting up new cupboards (more likely open shelving), moving everything back in, etc.
I only bring all this up so you may feel properly sorry for me.
Well, that, and to show that the law of simplicity is closely related to the law of assumptions. By assuming that the washer and dryer would be the same heighth as the old ones it led me into an unforseen series of events, the final outcome of which is yet to be determined. We still haven't determined the color of the paint, which in itself is a major undertaking in our household.* What color will the floorboards be? Will we put in another outlet along the opposite wall?** Will we still be married by the time this is all through?*** There's probably some deeper philosophical meaning**** to all this but I think I'll just wrap it up for now.
*Sidetrail: What is it with the literally thousands and thousands of paint colors? I mean do we really need all those shades of tan and can anybody really tell the difference between any of them? There should be maybe seven colors, max, and maybe 5-6 variations on each of them. It would make choosing colors so much easier. If I every run for office, I think I'll base my campaign platform on that.
**Another Sidetrail: The First Law of Electrical Outlets states: Every outlet shall be so placed that it is in a position of extreme inconvenience when the homeowner needs to use it.
***Third Sidetrail: We'll be married, I just don't know if we'll be talking!
****Another Sidetrail? What is it with all these tangents? The adage "measure twice, cut once" comes to mind.
2 comments:
I think people are the same way. As you get closer to someone you see the many layers that make up the whole, shaped by the forces of experince. Any perceived flaws to an outsider might seem easy to rectify with a quick coat of white paint, but each layer of that personality soaks up the paint differently, leaving the one size fits all solution wholly inadaquate.
How's that for a try to be philosophical.
I've been assured by many ads that 'one size' indeeds fits all! In reality, as you point out, that's not the case.
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