The world is a complicated place. People are complicated. Relationships are complicated. Life is complicated. Yet at the same time, it’s also so very simple. It’s easy to focus on the thousands of reasons, of possibilities for why something happened, why you felt a certain way. Often, both these things are true, people have complicated reasons, and also very simple ones. 

I’ve been thinking about my decision to stay in Japan lately. It felt so complicated at the time. Why did I want to stay here, what would I gain, what about all the things I don’t like here. I tried to weigh and examine all these different factors, trying to come up with the “correct” solution. Yet at the end of the day, my decision was simple. I stayed in Japan because I wanted to. 

It was a simple answer, but one made for complex reasons. I wanted to stay to try and achieve goals, to avoid having any regrets, to make memories. Even the simple is complicated, and the complicated, simple. It’s a frustrating duality, like a snake eating its tail. The two contradicting ideas seem to flow back into one another, over and over again in an endless loop. 

Writing this blog is, like so many examples, very much the same. The idea of writing an article, posting it, and sharing it on social media is a simple one in theory. Yet writing isn’t always so simple. Some days I can write for an hour or two on end, just letting my fingers jot down my thoughts as quickly as I have them. Other days I stare at a blank page and wonder what to write about, or bounce around between articles as I struggle to stay on the same topic. 

I could go on and on, finding more examples of things that are simple, but complicated, or vice versa. I’m sure you could list 10 different things that follow that exact same pattern. You might protest, saying that’s not true, not everything can be so simple. Some things have to be complicated, or you lose the nuance that comes with complexity. Or perhaps you’re the opposite, things are simple, and it’s people who like to overcomplicate things, considering every small detail while missing the painfully obvious. 

The answer, annoyingly, is probably that both are true. It just depends on how you’re able to view the world. When I was growing up, my mom would sometimes tell me that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Those small details always felt so big, everything so complicated, with a myriad of moving parts. Nothing seemed simple as a teenager. The world was incomprehensible, with a million possible reasons and explanations for any given thing. 

With some time, a bit of practice, and the perspective you get as you get older, you realize those small things still exist, but you learn to see them as whole. It all adds up to something larger, and you learn to view the world on both a micro, and a macro level. It’s not always easy, sometimes I still get lost in those endless details, or I oversimplify something at the expense of fully understanding it. 

Like many skills, you need to use it consciously. It’s not easy to change whatever worldview you naturally have, but changing your perspective is invaluable in dealing with life’s different challenges. You might be fighting with a friend over a dozen small things that eventually grow into a fight. It’s not just one thing, it’s so many things, and for a second you worry that this could be the end of your relationship. If you’re able to slow down, and look at the big picture, you might find a simple answer right under your nose. They’re your friend, and you love them. 

Granted, seeing the simple answer doesn’t instantly solve all your problems. You can’t end a fight just by reminding someone that you love them, those small things still matter. Like almost anything in this world, it’s about balance. Learning to appreciate both the big, and small, and realize when you’ve lost sight of the other. 

Let’s take this very article for example, you may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with your adventures in Japan? Well, this is a place for my thoughts, and arguably this article most lives up to the title of “musings”. It may be a little more philosophical, and certainly more pretentious than my usual articles, but this is a space for me to explore topics. Often verbalizing, or in this case writing, out your thoughts helps you solidify things that you intuitively know, but maybe just need to be reminded off

But why did I write it in the first place? Well, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, struggled to focus on other articles, and wanted to explore some recent thoughts. That, and I just needed something to post in order to get back a more normal posting schedule. Complicated, but simple.