As I sat in front of the computer, waiting for sudden enlightenment, trying to conjure up something meaningful and deep about simplicity in life; another idea or more of a realization sprang into my mind. Though kind of an embarrassing one to admit, I’m just not that deep, or my convictions really aren’t that strong. To make matters worse I’m also extremely indecisive so I couldn’t even decide which it was. Finally, after a few hours I did come up with something and left the college with rough draft in hand, though I was disappointed in myself for not coming up with some really inspiring belief.
As I was driving home, I had to stop by the store and pick up a few things; namely crackers, as a visit to a cheese factory days before had left me with a surplus of cheeses and a deficit in crackers. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the store looking for crackers, and was slightly overwhelmed as I walked down the aisle. The sheer number of cracker brands was mind boggling, with each brand of cracker having its own subsection, with varying takes on each kind of cracker. I wandered down the aisle once, and then wandered back, trying to figure out which one of these editable utensils would be best for a fermented curd. I wanted something plain, to taste more of the cheese and less of the cracker, but I could find nothing. They all touted some amazing new flavor making them zestier, crunchier, or healthier. All I wanted was a good old fashioned cracker with just a little salt, nothing special. Then as I did my third pass down that same aisle, I finally found what I was looking for. Pushed back on the bottom shelf and looking all but forgotten, was that old faithful of crackers, the saltine. On that bottom shelf I also found something I believe in, at that moment I believed in saltines. Okay, I believed they were the right cracker for my current dilemma. The more I thought about this belief the more it began to make sense, in a weird kind of way.
Beliefs in my eyes are fluid, changing from one moment to the next. I grew up with a very strong faith or belief in God. When my little brother died, I began to doubt the one major belief that had been there all my life. After this I never really wanted to believe in anything so whole heartedly again. I began to believe in a multitude of little things, and in believing in simple things like a saltine, a good conversation with an old friend, or a hike in the woods, insures that I am not too hard to please, or let down if one of those little beliefs is shattered, I’ll still have plenty more things to believe in. In the end, after writing all of this, my belief statement has stayed the same as it was in my rough draft. I believe in simplicity in life.