{"id":66208,"date":"2026-05-10T15:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=66208"},"modified":"2026-05-10T15:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:41:15","slug":"the-simple-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=66208","title":{"rendered":"The Simple Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Eat. Love. Stay warm. Try not to get eaten by wolves.<\/em><\/strong><br>Coffee with <strong>Elder G<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/qi6roerb53d8rrkyfvnu9\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-09_16_33-AM.jpg?rlkey=ob2ynkefjfnfl5t2693g6i85q&amp;st=wkpk2r9h&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/qi6roerb53d8rrkyfvnu9\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-09_16_33-AM.jpg?rlkey=ob2ynkefjfnfl5t2693g6i85q&amp;st=wkpk2r9h&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Elder G created this image of our gathering. I&#8217;m not sure who is who???<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First &#8211; Happy Mothers&#8217; Day!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/jkum66ye3dyxvwcg87ney\/Gemini_Generated_Image_miwnfwmiwnfwmiwn.jpg?rlkey=89ue9yl6x89ejh54menj1f3rp&amp;st=sb96aext&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/jkum66ye3dyxvwcg87ney\/Gemini_Generated_Image_miwnfwmiwnfwmiwn.jpg?rlkey=89ue9yl6x89ejh54menj1f3rp&amp;st=sb96aext&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But then Elder G and I get into a little deeper discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>G,<\/strong> why is life so complicated? We&#8217;ve gone from village life to having<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">tax codes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">passwords<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">algorithmically optimized outrage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">health insurance companies determining who lives and who dies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">twelve kinds of USB cable<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">\u201cyour call is important to us\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">a banking system where ownership, access, taxation, survivorship, and beneficiary status are all different things somehow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As <strong>Elder G<\/strong> puts it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of the complication comes from scale. A small tribe can run on memory and trust. A nation of 340 million people runs on forms, procedures, and rules because somewhere, at some point, somebody tried something astonishingly dumb and forced the creation of subsection 14(b)(iii). Civilization is basically an enormous coral reef of reactions to prior disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yet, beneath the bureaucratic lasagna, the important things remain oddly primitive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">a good meal<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">a person you trust<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">laughter in a kitchen<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">music at night<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">gardens after rain<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">someone saying \u201cI\u2019m glad you\u2019re here\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WLBOTT:<\/strong> I think part of the problem that our base primate urges (especially dominance and aggression) now have modern tools and weapons and technology to make life much harder than it needs to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Elder G:<\/strong> The strange thing is that despite all the machinery, humans still seem happiest in moments that would be recognizable to people thousands of years ago: a shared meal, a story, a song, a hand on your shoulder, somebody laughing so hard they snort tea through their nose at a ridiculous <strong>WLBOTT<\/strong> sign reading: COMPLIANCE IS HARMONY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/lbvam3v8o315t9ig0r9mv\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-01_43_29-PM.jpg?rlkey=exvfxwjk1vzvc5dj5sa0kkskr&amp;st=5ek5qun9&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/lbvam3v8o315t9ig0r9mv\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-01_43_29-PM.jpg?rlkey=exvfxwjk1vzvc5dj5sa0kkskr&amp;st=5ek5qun9&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/ecqbsp54tiy3oqkku8ufl\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-03_39_06-PM.jpg?rlkey=fmn07zmz5yoh5xl6jfp29mu0a&amp;st=8kg4tw4f&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/ecqbsp54tiy3oqkku8ufl\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-03_39_06-PM.jpg?rlkey=fmn07zmz5yoh5xl6jfp29mu0a&amp;st=8kg4tw4f&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/6iq69dyslnbtbz7ykyl3y\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-09_05_22-AM.jpg?rlkey=3cwz3pt8ac0n8xcmgbhap02a3&amp;st=x7jusbeq&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/6iq69dyslnbtbz7ykyl3y\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-09_05_22-AM.jpg?rlkey=3cwz3pt8ac0n8xcmgbhap02a3&amp;st=x7jusbeq&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/8grnap82cptm2dk21e4b2\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-08_28_07-AM.jpg?rlkey=7c5gwi7cde0rc8t9xjqf06hu8&amp;st=wj9ny3bf&amp;raw=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/8grnap82cptm2dk21e4b2\/ChatGPT-Image-May-10-2026-08_28_07-AM.jpg?rlkey=7c5gwi7cde0rc8t9xjqf06hu8&amp;st=wj9ny3bf&amp;raw=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eat. Love. Stay warm. Try not to get eaten by wolves.Coffee with Elder G First &#8211; Happy Mothers&#8217; Day! But then Elder G and I get into a little deeper discussion. G, why is life so complicated? We&#8217;ve gone from village life to having As Elder G puts it: WLBOTT: I think part of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[137,157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brotherhood-sisterhood-of-man-woman","category-elder-g"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66208"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66215,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66208\/revisions\/66215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}