Mission Creep

Complicate:  To make or become intricate, difficult, or involved.


It has been said that A.A. is a simple program for complicated people.  Boy, is that true in my case.  I can complicate the hell out of anything.  Why would I make something easy if I can make it really, really, unnecessarily hard?


Part of the rationale behind the move to The New City was to unburden myself of so many needless complications.  I moved into a much smaller living space which required me to get rid of a lot of crap that I was hoarding and storing and hauling around, but never touching.  I kid you not there were boxes that had been sealed up in the Pleistocene age and never reopened.  I don't know what was in them.  I put them out on the curb for the garbage guys.  My car situation got simpler.  The services that I required no longer seemed a requirement and were jettisoned.  I paid good money for things that seemed important yet I've lived happily for a year without any of them.


"Can you believe I paid $100 a month for that?" I'll say, my slack-jaw dropping in amazement.  "What was I thinking?"


It has been funny watching my tendency to list back into complications.  Vaguely, my living space becomes mildly unsatisfactory.  I look longingly at someplace bigger, someplace in a cooler part of town, someplace on a quieter street but in a nice neighborhood close to the action.  I can't stay up past 10PM anymore so I have no idea what kind of action I'm looking for.  Maybe a nice wheelchair store.


The military has a phrase called "mission creep."  It suggests the tendency to start out with one goal in mind then to slowly embiggen and complicate that mission over time.  I start out with something simple in mind, only to add layers and layers of complexity until I'm dealing with a huge, unmanageable mess.


Now where have I heard the phrase "our lives had become unmanageable?"  It sounds so familiar.