A Ladleful of Simplicity…

I recently was told this story…

Once there was a woman who wanted to buy a new soup ladle. She went to a silversmith and he showed her varied ornate and embellished soup ladles. She asked, “Do you have anything else to show me?” He brought out a ladle that was plain and free of any embellishment or ornamental design. The woman thought, “This is just what I am looking for.” The silversmith quoted a price.

She exclaimed,” Why is this ladle, free of ornament and design, twice the price of the other ladles?”

The silversmith replied, “The ladles that are heavily ornamented are able to hide imperfections and flaws in the silver. This plain ladle is free of any flaws – there are no embellishments to hide imperfections in the silver. It is of higher quality.”

The costlier ladle was simple and plain, but its simplicity made it beautiful – its genuineness. So often out of a sense of insecurity or feeling less than,  we camouflage our lives with embellished masks. While at the same time we are drawn to those who are real. We complicate ourselves with the disguise of ornamentation…thinking no one would find the simple truth of who we are as valuable. Walt Whitman was known to say, “Simplicity is the glory of expression.” It is the person who is genuine in his/her simplicity who strikes us as beautiful. To be who you are in the truth of simplicity and to be that well is to put your stamp of uniqueness upon a world often hiding behind its manmade embellishments.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci