On the complexity of simplicity

Michael Oppenheim reflects on the testimony to simplicity and motor cars

by Michael Oppenheim 6th June 2014

The Quaker testimony to simplicity urges us to live our lives simply. I enjoyed a certain smugness for many years, in the belief that I was practising simplicity because I was driving a Citroën 2CV motor car – the much-loved Freda. It was a very basic vehicle. I contemplated writing a letter enquiring how many members, similarly, drove 2CVs – thereby practising simplicity – but decided that I might embarrass those Quakers who choose to drive what I then considered to be ‘rather complex’ modern cars.