LET'S SLOW DOWN

Fast, faster, fastest! We all are running very fast, we have no time to slow down, look back, ruminate or think about others. Where are we headed, by the way? As technology is making things easier and faster for us, logically we ought to slow down and enjoy life. In earlier times, almost everything was done manually and our forefathers still had time to enjoy life. It is not that they did not enjoy their walk through paths of life. They did. Also, we cannot say they achieved in life less than what we have been able to achieve. If we define achievement against material benchmarks we have erroneously set for ourselves, then their is a fundamental problem. Earning heaps of money and accumulating wealth is not success by any yardstick. Success is what many great people, who lived very simple and austere lives, achieved and who are remembered today by their deeds, and not by how much materialistic success they enjoyed.

It has been ages since even I heard or saw the birds chirp, trees sway in cold morning breeze, rains lash the earth, water flow down in a stream or sun and moon rise and set. I haven't even smelled wet earth in years. We all do understand the importance of such simple indulgences and the pleasure they give but somehow we have a notion that we are very busy and cannot spare time for such leisurely activities. Well, we are fooling ourselves and wasting our precious time. E Hoffer in “Reflections on the Human Condition” wrote that, "The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, rather, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life."

Be that as it may, what is of essence is to slow down. Do not stop, but slow down. For if you rush through life you will end up having a near life experience, but you will never live life to its fullest.

"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat."

Lily Tomlin