Sometimes, the thing in life I long the most for is simply the ability to "come up for air," every now and then.
I have probably expressed variations of that particular sentiment on many occasions... which is perhaps a reflection of something I am not particularly keen to spend a lot of time looking at: There's something fundamentally wrong with life, on a greater scale.
A couple of hours back, I happened upon a short video clip on YouTube — from the BBC, no less — that was basically a "color segment" about a man who'd decided to "dial his life back" to 1946.
Several things about the video seemed poignant.
First, it would be easy to simply say that "people slow down when they get older," but this particular person was early to mid-30s, not retirement age.
Second, at the heart of his strange decision was the sentiment that life simply has "advanced" to a point where we are eternally moving so fast that there's barely a moment to sit still and simply enjoy being.
We have replaced peacefully reading the newspaper with 256-character tweets, as the source of how we get our information. We consume "fast food," because we ostensibly don't have time for an hour-long sit down dinner, let alone the time to actually prepare it. We've replaced having actual hobbies with zoning out to mindless YouTube or TikTok clips.
Which leads us to the "jungle of notes" on my desk.
Without (A) writing myself a note every time I remember one more thing I need to take care of and (B) listening to rather frenetic trance music while working... I would actually have little chance of being able to navigate life, on a daily basis.
I suppose I should just be grateful that I have actually found a "system" of sorts that allows me to do so... and not let too many things fall through the cracks.
I suppose I find a small measure of peace in knowing that it's not just a case of "getting old" because when I talk to our 30-year old daughter, she's also talking about her lack of time... and how they often "have no money" because dinner is not being made from affordable groceries, but consists of overpriced "Door Dash" calls placed from the car on the way home from work so the food arrives a few minutes after she does, so she can eat while also dealing with work project stuff for tomorrow.
All this, simply so she and our son-in-law can afford to be homeowners. Proud of them, though... unlike many of their peers, they were actually able to buy a home in their late 20's!
So why do I keep writing these kinds of posts?
Well, it's definitely not because I am feeling sorry for myself... it's more to offer up an invitation of sorts for others to consider that maybe all these things we're pursuing don't actually represent "going in the right direction."
This strange thing called "society" tends to collectively push us in certain directions... and we end up being too busy to pause and consider even the possibility that what we're pursuing actually doesn't make sense.
Sometime what's billed as "progress" isn't really progress, at all...
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2023-05-16 23:58 PST
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