A smile brings an understanding about life's complexities

A pretty young woman smiled at me recently.

That, in itself means nothing beyond the fact that it makes near 65-year-old bloke feel pretty good, but it does tap into the far broader psychological questions of life.

Edward O. Wilson.

The smile, altruistic and given in a moment of fleeting inclusive friendship, illustrated that what is best about life is simple, uncomplicated and without cost to either the giver or the receiver.

In fact a smile and its more exuberant cousin, laughter, is an international human language, just as are those other emotions of sadness, fear and distress – they make sense and we relate to them irrespective of colour or creed.

However, the simplicity of a smile and the force of its message are a timely reminder of the insistence and urgency of a message of which we should all take heed.

Human life is of such complexity that it now stands in direct conflict with the intricate biology that sustains all life on earth, including you and me.

Trying to make sense of a life he considered to be burgeoning out of control, E.F. Schumacher sat down in the early 1970s and wrote “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People mattered” to quickly secure something of cult following.

The implication of Schumacher’s “small” was that something as uncomplicated as a smile and so simple seemed closely related and stands in contrast to the complexity to which humanity is now heavily embroiled.

Climate change, oil scarcity and the world’s economic difficulties are or little significance according to American biologist and author, Edward O. Wilson.

Edward O. Wilson's
"Biophilia".

Wilson, writing in “Biophilia” and then “The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth”, repeatedly emphasised of humankind’s need to ensure the sustenance and survival of every species, from the microscopic to the massive, to equally ensure its own survival.

Wilson explains that fewer than 10 per cent of the life forms on earth are known to science and of those, less than one per cent has been studied beyond simple anatomical description and few notes on natural history.

He said we don’t need a moon base or a manned trip to Mars, rather an expedition to planet earth.

Considering Wilson and Schumacher’s views, we don’t need the gigantism or complexity of our modern world, instead we need certain smallness, an understandable simplicity of life and a way of living that is on a decided human scale.

Contemporary growth, many claim, hinges on complexity, size and speed, but within such sophistication are often unintended consequences that alienate humanity and solutions are to be found in something that is smaller, slower and simpler.

That, by its very nature, would less demanding on our biosphere and so would make everyone smile, young or otherwise.