complexity/confusion

First, here's the link for my podcast introducing this week's Vision on the 10 Commandments at Fairlawn West UCC.

Since the 1960's I have tried to enable myself and my family to live a simpler lifestyle. But I grew to believe over the years that living more simply would disconnect us from the predominant culture around us. I thought we could still be part of it and not be compromised by it.

And all around us the sophisticates of the economic and political theory were trying to convince all of us how complex and intricate was our national economy and international economy. We became more and more convinced that only the "experts" could manage the main pieces of our economy.

Then Alan Greenspan, the great priest of US economic thought, admitted that he had misjudged in the decisions and the observations he had been giving us for years as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. We have seen major corporate ceo and manager after another make decisions that have drastically affected all of our lives. The hubris of our system and what has done to all, great and small, has been deceptive and demeaning.

I am returning to focus more on living more simply. Complexity does not mean wiser or more intelligent. In the matter of money, it appears now to mean simply complexity which bamboozles from the least to the greatest of them...novice to expert. (check out Jeremiah 6 Message version and NIV which has the language of "least ... greatest")

David Loar, UCC, United Church of Christ, Akron, money, economy, simple life