Complexity often contains a great deal of meaning. The most difficult people (the ones closest to us) and situations (the ones closest to us) usually contain a high level of meaning. In facing difficulty, embracing ambiguity and holding out hope, we are simultaneously digging down into the very foundations of meaning.
This is not the same thing as understanding. Some things are filled with meaning, but relatively little understanding. Often, the people who mean the most to me are the most complicated, and those whom I understand the least. They are beautiful abstractions, phantom, dancing lights that move this way and that across a cold, night sky. When I married my wife, I thought I knew her. Now, after two decades, both meaning and mystery have grown in our life together. I know her, but I do not know her. She is complex, and a lifetime of loving her may never unravel into any real understanding.
Simple is overrated, so is understanding. Let’s embrace the mystery.
