Slowing Down
Slowing Down
Ours is a nation addicted to speed. We demand and expect instant gratification.
We want aggressive medicine: “Never mind what it will do to my body in the long run, just so that I feel better now.”
We want DSL: “Faster, faster, faster.”
We want pre-fabricated houses: “Never mind about the uninspired design and don’t spend a lot of time on it. It’ll probably be razed before the consequences of shoddy construction and substandard materials begin to show, anyway.”
We want drive-through every-places: restaurants, pharmacies, and wedding chapels!
We want electronic checkouts: “I don’t want to be slowed down by lines or by friendly clerks chatting about the weather.”
We want fashionable magazines—with plenty of showy, touched-up photographs: “I don’t want to take the time to research and read and think. Just give me the information I want quick. As long as you’re one of those hallowed ‘experts,’ then your opinions are good as gold.”
We want email: “I don’t want to spend time and thought on a long careful letter to my friend. Anyway, my penmanship is atrocious, and I don’t have the time or inclination to improve it.”
We want credit cards and we want debt: “Who wants to labor and dream when you can have it now?”
We want pesticides and fertilizers: “Who has time for the wise, traditional methods of crop rotation and composting and sustainable agriculture?”
“This is a competitive world and we’ve got to keep up!”
Anything that promises quick fixes is sure to catch our eye. “Keep your house clean in only ten minutes a day!“ “Yummy macaroni and cheese in less than five minutes!” “Lose that belly in TWO WEEKS!” The headlines blare. (Maybe if we took time to cook good, wholesome food instead of that instant macaroni and cheese, we wouldn’t have those bellies.)
We want things and we want them now! It’s a growing American character disorder: the belief that we can get something for nothing. We want a good life, good relationships, good times, but we rush through everything that makes those things good: God, love, laughter, labor, song, conversation, family. We make believe that we can have those things without expending effort, tears, time. We are too busy, busy, busy... doing what?
What are we saving time for anyway? Television? Sleeping? Gameboy? We want to get things “over with” so that we can “move on with life.” But maybe life is what we are skipping over.
It is in the process, folks. Slow down a little. Savor.
Photograph: Tyron2. © Alicia Paulson.
Friday, June 13, 2008