Rowland Ramble -

I have been back in the northwest for a while and have had some time to think about what is going on in life…at least mine. I have had time to think about questions on why and how we have come to the place where we are today as a society and what it means for the future.

I think that there was a time when things were simple, at least in comparison to the world we live in today. The thing that I find questionable is how and when did life become so complicated? As a kid, I didn’t have the worries that adults had. I didn’t have to worry about speeding on my bicycle and getting a ticket. Helmets were not a requirement on my bicycle even though for some, it should have been. People at the very least, appeared to be happy, less stressed and not as rushed as they are today. TV’s are now “Instant On”, food is microwaveable, credit checks are “Instant” and food on the go is fast. Kids playtime is scheduled as a “Play date” and even junk mail is marked “Time Sensitive” in order to press people into opening it in a rush.
There is a constant in these things and that is time. It waits for no one and we have found ways to allow it to create a pressure that drives us into a frenzy of hurrying from one activity to the next. We don’t allow time for courtesy or politeness or general pleasantries. We don’t even allow time to listen to a voice mail but would rather read it quickly because it has been translated by online software that makes it easier to skip over the boring parts and get to the point fast. We trim away the bits of our lives that slow us down in the name of being on time and highly productive. Too often the bits we trim away are the behaviors and activities that make us human and we sacrifice them in the name of speed and productivity.
This brings up the question…why the need to be so highly productive? Are there deadlines that need to be met that will kill you if you don’t meet them? How did they (the deadlines) creep into your life? Will you loose your job if you don’t meet them? Is loosing your job going to ruin your credit because of missed payments to bills that you shouldn’t have placed yourself under the control of? That new car payment? The latest electronic gadget or that fancy widget?…do those things (Awesome Credit, the new car or latest electronic gadget) really matter? What does having great credit really do for you anyway besides measure your ability to be in debt and tell others how great you are at it.
I realize that many are strapped financially and in fact now are pressed just make ends meet. Seems earning a living wage is becoming so tough with the demand for us to do more with less. There is a story of a nation that was pressed into doing doing more with less. The Israelites as slaves were forced to build bricks with no straw as they once had done. They eventually were led out of Egypt from the hands of their captors.

Are we on the brink of collapse? I don’t think so but i do think that we are definitely going to have to change how we do business and how we interact with one another if we are to return to being a more civilized society.