Ian McDonaldOUR LIVES of such infinite value come and go in a whirl of busyness. We hasten and hustle and there is never enough time and always too much information. The hours trip over themselves as they pass into eternity. You will never have them back so regret every one not spent as you would really wish them to be spent.
Life increasingly is an unrelenting rush of activity and chores, appointments and commitments. "Things that have to be done at once" dominate the day to such an extent that there is hardly a moment, or no moment at all, for the far more important things that do not need to be done at all. There are more and more reports to be reported on. What spare hours there might be are spent dealing with the overflow from workdays cluttered with obligations which lead inexorably into other obligations. Such is the recipe for stress.
The trouble is that human beings now aspire too fiercely to simultaneity and omniscience. Perhaps it is an ancient wish come to be like God who said, "Let there be light!" and at once there was light. We want to be where we only have to open our mouths to make a world happen and open our eyes to have a world appear.
So we surf the Internet for access to all knowledge immediately, we press a button for instant cash, and the countless pieces of paper we generate at home and office simultaneously yield countless pieces of paper in every sort of elsewhere and vice versa until all the time we have is consumed in dealing with all that stuff. Such is the recipe for a wasted life.
But consider, for instance, those utterly 'useless' and unproductive times spent simply reminiscing, laughing, or talking with family or good friends. Or consider the quiet moments of refreshment and revelation when something of beauty is glimpsed or unexpected civility and grace is experienced, moments of delight absolutely without purpose. Such moments represent the kind of time that is vanishing in our lives, a time completely free of usefulness, a time zone of wonder, a time when we leave aside the habits of competition, achievement and the taken-for-granted tasks of life and are startled into appreciating what also is valuable in life and the world.
The yearning after more and more speed speed of exchanged communications, immediate access to information, concept instantly converted into conception is destroying an important part of our lives. We are losing the art of waiting awhile.
Ian McDonald is a regular contributor who lives and works in Georgetown, Guyana.
