Being mindful of simple things contributes to quality of life.

Leisure activities such has hobbies are a great example of simple, pleasurable activities.

The social origins, influences, and consequences of hobbies are often overlooked.

In an unguarded moment during my senior year of high school, a kid from the yearbook staff approached me for a quote to appear beneath my photo. Today, thumbing through those half-century-old pages, it’s obvious that most of my classmates actually put some forethought into the funny, pithy, or vapid sayings forever to be associated with their heavily retouched, acne-free monochrome images.

I had nothing. But the pressure was on for a response, and I remember thinking, “Keep it simple.” And so, on the spur of that moment, I made this my yearbook quote:

Simplicity is the essence of happiness.

Simplicity is the essence of happiness.

Not an original idea, but I’d never seen it expressed so, well, simply. Nor did the words appear in this form anywhere on the internet until 2013. They were written—no one knows where—by the enigmatic and possibly non-existent Cedric Bledsoe. Google finds many instances of his quote, but no published source, and nothing at all about the man.

My youthful words stayed with me through the years and have even become somewhat of a credo. The reminder to “Keep it simple!” (often amended with “Stupid!” to complete the “KISS” acronym) has proven helpful in domains as diverse as relationships, music composition, research design, and virtually everything I ever write.

A direct offshoot of the simplicity-happiness........

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