The Art of Simplicity

Out of simplicity arises complexity. 

My first thought as I sit here looking out my window onto the courtyard below is that it's raining - a simple observation. Then, I notice our elderly neighbor standing at the gate, holding it open for a delivery truck that has actually managed to park right in front. My mind immediately jumps back to thoughts about rain and how these droplets of condensed atmospheric water vapor precipitated and fell to earth this morning and how grateful we all are to have fresh water for sustenance.

Like I said, "It's raining outside." 

As I keep looking out the window and just as in astronomy, the expansion of our horizon leads me away from simplicity toward a myriad of complex or random arrangements, which arise from my observance (or non-observance) of the material universe. 

Did I mention that "It's raining outside"?

Antoine Lavoisier's law of the conservation of mass comes to mind... More precisely, how nothing is ever lost (whereby "nothing" means "nothing in our closed physical system, encompassing the entire physical universe as we know or believe it to exist" and "lost" means "escaping from said system"). 

If nothing is ever lost in a closed system, then searching outside ourselves to find answers to the nature of the universe takes us in circles whereby the answers only look different due to their location in said system and subsequent related form (relevant to that location).

Given this understanding, I formulate the following thoughts: 

1. I can choose to look for answers outside myself (but still within said system)
2. I can question whether those answers lie within (something in said system)

Considering that the atoms which gave rise to my being are held within this system, I have no reason to believe that I cannot find truth from my present location.

And the truth of the matter is "It's raining outside."

Therefore I need an umbrella,

and on it goes...