Engineering Efforts

Storm clouds over a river in Australia - photo by Randy Olson

          According to National Geographic, no other kind of natural disaster in America has caused more death and destruction than floods. A 2007 report by the Organization for Economic and Development found that coastal flooding (when a storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland) does $3 trillion in damage a year worldwide. Over recent decades, extremely destructive flooding has been occurring with greater regularity, possibly due to global warming. Most destruction occurs because humans desire to live near the coast or river valleys. In addition, developers often backfill and build on wetlands that would normally act as natural flood buffers. Massive engineering efforts have been aimed at preventing floods through levee systems, dikes, and dams. 

          

Overfilling a vessel is not as good

As stopping before it is filled.

Over-sharpen a blade and it will lose its edge.

~ Tao te Ching

          Wu-wei, a concept in Taoism, is action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort. It is a way to 'keep things simple' instead of over-reacting. This mindset shouldn’t be confused with laziness or procrastination; neither is it motivated by ego-driven goals or desires. In this state, we let go of our opinions about how we think things should be. Instead of forcing our standards onto a situation, we respond to the true demands of it. Wu-wei reminds us that over-doing or going to extremes (emotionally, physically or mentally) is not a better way of doing things. For instance, if our partner or friend says something unkind, we may react by blowing up and saying something equally unkind (overfilling the cup). We could react by giving them the silent treatment and pretending they don’t exist (refusing to fill the cup). Or, we could respond by calmly telling them that what was said hurt our feelings (filling the cup with neither too much nor too little). Instead of trying to engineer selfish wants, we simply respond to what is needed.

For more information on simplicity, see this post.