Simplicity: Complex simplicity

Anne de Gruchy looks at complexity, simplicity and the interplay between the Quaker testimonies

by Anne de Gruchy 30th September 2016

Why is simplicity so complicated and how do we define it? This question arose repeatedly during my 2016 Eva Koch scholarship at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.

For my research I was privileged to conduct one-to-one interviews with twenty-six people – mainly Friends, aged from their twenties to seventies, from a variety of backgrounds. ‘What comes to mind when I say the word “simplicity”?’ I asked. Friends were often more sure about what it was not: complicated, ritualised, cluttered, getting hung up on material things, a weakness, conflict or extravagance.