Artless: (adj) without guile or deception; simple and natural

I believe the phrase is, “I’m going to date myself.”

It doesn’t mean that I’m going to wine and dine some portion of my being over a very expensive dinner. I believe the idea is that I’m going to let you know how old I truly am.

I don’t do this very often, but for the sake of this essay I will succumb to a bit of nostalgia.

The character’s name was Eddie Haskell. He was on a show called, “Leave It to Beaver” (which nowadays could not be spoken aloud without giggles).

Eddie Haskell was the smooth-talking, courtly, insincere friend of Wally and the Beav, who was constantly getting them in trouble because as soon as the adults left the room he turned into some sort of devious devil from the dark pits of hell, devising plans of mischief.

Now, I will tell you–it is possible to be Eddie Haskell without being evil. Matter of fact, most of us are taught a “Haskellian” approach to life. And here it is:

“The harder you try the more successful you’re going to be.”

I object to this contention. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

Trying hard is exhausting.

• Once exhausted, it is very easy to lose the glimmer of your original goal.
• Once that’s gone, you end up doing things because you have to.
• And if you look at the world around us, there is an almost-universal grimace of compulsion instead of passion.

Life was never meant to be hard. If you get around people who think it’s hard, you should leave quickly before you, too, become jaded.

The artless way to live is a three-fold process:

1. Learn how nature works.
2. Don’t argue with it.
3. Develop a plan that works within the natural order

There you go.

Most of our struggles are due to the fact that we are determined to ignore what has proven to be true.

Eddie Haskell thought he could manipulate adults by “acting nice.”

All he ended up doing was making the grown-ups cynical, looking suspicious himself, and ending up blamed for all the misdeeds.　

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