Fast Paced

Everything here is fast paced. When I get up in the morning I am usually exhausted already from the job that lies ahead of me. People here walk faster, talk faster, do things faster. Wall street execs handle multi-million dollar deals on a daily, if not hourly basis and nothing less is expected. If you've ever been on the stock exchange floor after it starts up, it is nothing but people in lab coats running around like chickens with their heads cut off and yelling numbers to each other. They control our economy. Watching the tickers go around and around you are more aware than ever of how fast everything has gotten.

Which makes me think about the peace of other lifestyles. Think about the Amish, for example. Their lifestyle has been virtually unchanged over the last several hundred years, since they arrived in the 18th or 19th century. They use manual labor to kep their houses and barns maintained, buckets to draw water from wells and pumps, fire to cook their food and light their candles. Everyone has their place in that community and while things move a lot slower than the city, there is definitely a sense of understanding that things will get done. In their own time.

And I think about the small communities of Japan where people start each morning with tea and a simple breakfast before beginning work, before starting their day. Where things are done almost languidly. I like the idea of slowing walking down a mountainside to work in a garden, and harvesting my own vegetables before returning to my house back up the mountains. Fresh air, excercise, healthy food.

Are we meant to be busy? I understand the drive to push, push push harder and harder, but not the drive to stay as far away from that as possible. I wonder what it would be like if New York slowed down. If the people who lived here walked slower, stopped to really appreciate some of the architecture and window displays here, enjoyed their Saturday afternoons at the various street festivals. Maybe we should have a protest that celebrates that.