Fending off the dinosaurs

Does it ever occur to you how much, as a society, we have managed to complicate the obvious?

Take health care. I just attended a workshop on medical billing codes for the new system that was brought out in October. According to the 1,200-page book I now count as part of my library, there are at minimum approximately 80,000 things that can be wrong with us when we go to the doctor -- or at least 80,000 things that can be billed for. What happened to a plain, simple broken arm?

Everybody got their taxes done? Try this one on. My father-in-law asked me to print off the 10W-EZ tax form. No problem. It was two pages. However, the instruction guide for the 10W-EZ was 116 pages long, in small print. What is easy about that?

Why have we made simple things so difficult? Living in the United States has kind of become like reading instructions for a hand mixer in Portuguese. I'm not putting down anyone from Portugal. I'm just wondering why I have instructions for a hand mixer. If you can't figure out where the beaters go, you have bigger problems than language.

In 1943, a wonderful psychologist by the name of Abraham Maslow wrote a paper titled "The Theory of Human Motivation." In this paper, he created the well-known Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom of the pyramid starts with our physiological needs: water, warmth, food, oxygen, shelter. We've managed to go from gnawing on raw antelope to super-processed soy drinks and McMansions.

Second is safety. Anybody else ride in the back of a truck, eat apples right off the tree, and live to tell about it? Enough said.

Next we have love and belonging. Everyone needs love. Just ask Dr. Phil or the United States Supreme Court.

Fourth is self-esteem. Did you know in today's world everybody is a winner? Self-esteem isn't always a given. Sometimes you have to fail. Companies don't give bonuses for 12th place.

Lastly, there's self-actualization, the point of becoming comfortable with who you are and what you can do. Most people don't hit that until at least age 35. It's at that time you realize that as a rule, life really is simple. Things are good or they're bad, easy or hard. Complicated is only what we make it.

I think cave men had it right. We need food and a nice, warm cave. We need each other. And, we need a nice, sharp stick to fend off the dinosaurs -- it doesn't have to be an AK-47.

I'd love to hear your comments. Email me at wborenrn@gmail.com.