The Hasty Society

As I was sitting in traffic the other day, I was reminded of just how pressed for time modern society is. Everything has to be done now (or sooner) and everyone has every minute of every day planned to the second with absolutely no allowance for unforseen circumstances.

Indeed, as three lanes worth of traffic inched forward into a construction zone (where there was only one lane open), I had plenty of time to ponder the pace of modern society. People simply have no idea what to do if they have time where they’re not rushing around doing something. Not necessarily getting things done but they have to be rushing around doing things. Perhaps this is one of the primary reasons for road rage. Nobody has any patience for anything that interferes with their nice ordered world.

Time and a again as I inched through construction zone after construction zone on my weekly tour of the major projects around Calgary, I saw impatient drivers speeding along. Even outside of the traffic jams, everyone was impatient, jumping ahead on lights, hardly stopping at stop signs if they even slowed down. Yet what has all this rushing around actually accomplished? Near as I can tell, absolutely nothing.

It seems high time that everyone simply slowed their days down. Slow down, do things right the first time. Take a break and smell the roses while you drink a coffee (or whatever vile brew you prefer). Take time to eat regularly. It seems to me that everyone should realize that all haste and no speed makes things take a long time. Wouldn’t it be better to take ten minutes more to do something than to spend forty minutes doing it again? Then you could have half an hour to set aside in the day to allow for traffic jams. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?

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