% pageID = "newsletter" %>
THE GOD OF SPEED Time and its passing occupy us as never before. We have bought into a 24/7, multi-tasking, channel-surfing, faster-is-better mindset that permeates our thoughts and actions. Our contemporary religion is that of the myth of speed which states relentlessly and mercilessly that those who don’t keep up fall behind, perhaps forever. This calls to mind a passage from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. When the Lilliputians first saw Gulliver’s watch, that “wonderful kind of engine…a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal,” they identified it immediately as the god he worshipped. After all, the Lilliputians observed, “he seldom did anything without consulting it: he called it his oracle, and said it pointed out the time for every action in his life.” We work harder and harder to accomplish more and more in less and less time. We gorge ourselves on news and information, make to-do lists, utilize real-time reminders, skip meals, go without sleep, brag about our long hours, starve relationships, and forfeit recreation. When we feel tired or perplexed, we redouble our efforts, become more efficient, and offer up even greater sacrifices to our god of speed. To make sure we are squeezing the most out of and into our lives, we strive to acquire more material possessions, money and power. The more we have, the more we want; the faster we run, the faster we must run. For no addiction can be satisfied by its object. OBSERVATION ASSESSMENT PRESCRIPTION “The God you worship is the God you deserve.” (Joseph Campbell) |