Americans are obsessed with their efficiency, which means, for the most part, getting things done faster.
"Get in touch with the whole internet world 14% faster...dial up your Ipod selection in milliseconds...cook twice as quick in our new laserbeam inferno cooker...etc."
The SAT exam...which graduating high schoolers take, and which colleges rely heavily on in choosing which applicants to admit to their school...has 195 questions to be done in 200 minutes. "Read the math question, think about information it gives you, what it is asking, solve it in 60 seconds, or we don't want you. You are not up to speed, dummy."
Now all of that would be...alright...if we were machines...which we are rapidly psycho-illogically becoming...but we ain't...we have a thinking, feeling brain. And neither of those generally overlooked traits function well, if at all, at high speed. They both need time to percolate, absorb, sense, explore, consider, relish, admire. To smell the roses. Not faster, quicker, sooner, but deeper, more fully, more personally, with greater nuances, texture, awareness. so ease up, throttle down, ease up, decelerate. What are we running away from? Where are we running to?
"To paraphrase Saint-Exupery, "It is only with the heart that one can see fully; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
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