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| Photo by Salt Water New England |
Some have a craving for complex flavors and an increasing distaste for simple, flat, or inert ones. A choice between freshly squeezed orange juice compared to Tang, or unpasteurized cider rather than apple juice, is no choice at all.
This craving of complexity goes well beyond food of course. It applies to almost everything, from news sources to clothes to furniture.
A few have conflated this complexity with a rough-hewn presentation. Others think a variation is more enduring; the ability to engage complex ideas, materials, even - in technology, for example - ecosystems in elegant forms may be at the heart of lasting value.
While this ability to be refreshed by embracing complexity seems to be a benefit of advancing years, the culture of the millennials seems to be able take solace in certain kinds of depth at an earlier age than prior generations. Education - formal, informal, or just as a feature of the zeitgeist - may accelerate and direct the growth.
This skill is becoming more important. Appreciating this side of complexity - be it in coffee, a symphony, tweed, a flock, a walk in the forest, an open wood fire, or an active ocean - is the most reliable balm for almost any cacophony, including brought on by the holidays or the milieu in which we currently find ourselves.
