Time to Slow Down

Instant gratification is the culprit of all societal ailments. Patience has disappeared from a long list of diminishing virtues. Every click, push, turn, and touch makes things beep, buzz, hum, and go. I don’t even need a key to start my car. Hell, even my drawers and cabinets are “self-closing” so they shut with nary a touch. We’ve come to this, America – turning a key and closing a drawer are hardship.

We are lazy people.

We want things in a hurry.

We are always in a rush.

We don’t have make time for joy.

No longer do we savor time. We don’t even savor our meals in this grab-n-go world. Don’t get me started on how we don’t take time to cook a homemade meal or sit down at the table together to eat as a family. Soon I’m going to be telling you to “Get off mah lawn!”

It seems we no longer let ourselves have the luxury of being bored. We are too rushed to be totally and blissfully engrossed in something. Even our TV watching is rushed as we binge watch Netflix rather than let one episode at a time sink in. Have a look around next time you go to a concert or a school event. You will see a sea of phones in the air, everyone jockeying for the best angle to snap that perfect, social media sharing worthy shot. Few people are actually mesmerized by the sheer experience of something without being beckoned by the siren of the screen. We see the world through the lens of a phone, losing literal and figurative perspective as we do so.

Do you recall the last time you were lost in the moment? For me, it was just last week when I devoured the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. But before that, I admittedly cannot remember when I was utterly consumed by something without succumbing to the flirtation of distraction. We have the gift of five senses that we rarely use to the fullest extent anymore. Imagine the depth of what we miss in those moments.

We, myself included, need to slow down. Patience is still a virtue. The rat race is full of rats. Time is already a cruel beast. Let’s stroll rather than scamper, dawdle rather than dash. Spring is in full bloom so there’s no better time than now to literally stop and smell the roses.