These lines set me thinking. We are living in a jet age where we talk of expressways and bullet trains. A cursory appraisal of most homes in the early morning or for that matter a look at our traffic manners shall clearly tell you that each one is in a perennial hurry, in a rush to reach somewhere.
What is the reason?
The answer appears to be easy, but to my mind is difficult to fathom. Our parents and forefathers lived a relatively peaceful life, and were no small achievers by any standards.
What then has gone wrong?
Is it the deluge of activities, too many means of communications and of commuting and that too fast? A look at your smartphone and you shall realize – phone calls, SMSs’, WhatsApp, FB updates and the list goes on. Has the list of accomplishments grown bigger for the present generation? I think not.
We have started mistaking activities for accomplishments. We have mistaken frequent connection for deeper/thicker relations. We have mistaken bigger network of friends and acquaintances for stronger relationships.
One of my friends, who seems to have all the time in the world, once told me, “I do not need to know the 2,000 members of the club. I know one member who knows the balance 1999.” And I realised, on thinking over, that he made sense.
An Israeli researcher, Michal Bar-Eli, evaluated hundreds of penalty shootouts and concluded that it would have done good for the goal keeper and his team if the goal keeper had neither moved left nor right, but stood still. We are conditioned to action, when remaining still would be a better choice.
Over the years, I have realised that my grandma had all the time to write a post card and personally place it in the red post box, my mother had all the time in the world to do all the household chores and her children have all excelled in their chosen field of endeavours.
I cannot help but extract the famous poem of the English poet, William H. Davies titled “Leisure” –
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.”
The position would be different if, for example: – O ne had no back to back appointments and the diary did not look like an attempt in “seconds splitting”.
– I f the lady in the house had engaged in a de-clutter exercise and avoided multitasking.
– I f one possessed clarity of goals. The traveller passing through a village asked the farmer “where does this road go?” “It shall take you wherever you want to go”, the farmer quipped.
– I f one set up do-not-disturb hours. Silence and solitude bring miraculous effects.
– I f one lived in the moment without brooding over the past or worrying about the future. My sagely friend rightly remarked “step aside from the rat race because even if you win, you shall still be a rat.”
– I f one spent time with himself. Somebody rightly exclaimed, “have you ever dialed your own telephone number to realise that it is constantly engaged and therefore providing no opportunity to talk to yourself?”
To sum up, we need to slow down or for that matter stop and sit down. Blaise Pascal made a profound statement when he said “all of humanity/s problems arise from the inability to sit quietly in a room”
