Life is simple. Life is simple. Life is simple.

No matter how many times I was told or read a book that preached the calm and order in simplicity, I never listened. I bring this up because I was having a random conversation with a fellow entertainer about influences, environment, circumstances, and how they cause people do this or that. You know, the same old bullshit. It's funny how people always say the same things.

Interrupting his spiel, I said, “Homie, you are making this way too complicated. Life is simple, brah. You're born at Point A and you die at Point B...all you have to do is figure out the middle.”

“That's the complicated part”, he replied.

“Noooo, that's the hard part”, I interrupted. “Complicated and hard are too different things. One means that you can't figure it out, and the other means it simply takes a lot of work to accomplish.”

We disagreed, of course, and moved on to other business. Later that night, though, I heard someone else talking about something similar. What are the chances people would be talking about their problems in terms of complications and too much going on in the same day within my listening radius? Pretty high actually, but I needed inspiration because I hadn't written in this blog for a few months. So I allowed myself to think it was some sign from the universe telling me to spread my words and thoughts on the simple life. I came home and immediately started writing.

Funny thing is that I didn't know how to convey my message. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) has been done to death, as with everything else. That is, until the following day. I was helping my son with his homework when the answer revealed itself to me. “Life is Mathematics. All you have to do is simplify and solve.”

I hate to take y'all back to school, but you remember those Math worksheets we got when we were young? This particular one had these long ass equations. You take a look at the first one and notice it has a bunch of x's, y's and a couple of z's to throw you for a loop.

3x-3y+4y+2x+16y-x+3x-4x+z-x-x-3y+12x-6x-3x-x+x=10z


“What the fuck?” is your initial thought, especially with it being the first problem. You're terrified to scan the rest of them. Then, you think about the directions you were given and what you were taught, “Simplify and solve.” So you begin to do just that.

First, you put everything in like terms, meaning the x's go with the x's, the y's with the y's, and the z all by itself. The z on the answer side of the equation is all right as is. So, after doing the number shuffle, the equation now looks like this:

3x+2x-x+3x-4x-x-x+12x-6x-3x-x+x-3y+4y+16y-3y+z=10z


It's looking a little more pleasing to the eye now because you put everything in like terms; however, it's still too long. You need to do more. It needs to be simpler. So you add 3x and 2x to get 5x. You take away x to get 4x. Plus 3x gives you 7x. Minus 4x gets you 3x. Minus another x gets you 2x. Take away one more and that's x, then add 12x, which is 13x. Shave 6x from there and get 7x. Taking off 3x gets you to 4x. Minus one more x gets you 3x. Plus x and plus x gives you the first part of problem, the “X-factor” if I may say (corny I know)...5x. It looks like this:

5x-3y+4y+16y-3y+z=10z


Now it's time for the equally annoying but now as complicated y's. So we start with -3y plus 4y, which is the same thing as 4y-3y. (Come on son, it's classic elementary stuff. 4Y is really +4y and -3y speaks for itself. In relation to negatives and positives they can be switched with each other as long as they maintain their value, meaning that as long as the 4 stays positive and the 3 stays negative we're good. I think. Lol.) That equals 1y or just y. Tack 16y on that and you get 17y. Lastly, take 3 away and that equals14y. The z stands on its own.
The problem now looks like:

5x+14y+z=10z.


Looks much easier, right? Actually, there's another step after that to make it even easier, but I'm stopping now because my head hurts too much already from teaching this to my five year old every week. It still serves the purpose.

Too often, we look at the chaos around us and try solving it without ordering and simplifying what we're going through or what we're trying to achieve. We get frustrated, bitter, and depressed because we've failed to uncomplicate our life; consequently, we get very little, if anything accomplished, and eventually quit.

Trust me, I understand...your situation is unique. You have this and that and that and this, and something or other, and so on and so forth. I've been there. I felt overwhelmed and trapped. I felt the weight on my shoulders. I didn't know where to start, and I couldn't see through the clouds enough to seriously plan anything. Then, I started simplifying it.

I made my family and work life x, the music business y, and leisure time z. I put all the like terms together, stopped worrying about things I couldn't change, looked at how I could improve the ones that I could, created a plan to do so, and then took it one step at a time. Shit is still hard, and doesn't always get done when it should; however, because I have a simplified view of the equation called my life, I am able to instantly identify why it may not have gotten accomplished and adjust to it. If I can do it, you can do it.