v By Ashley Bagwell
For a world where life hinges on making things move faster, we sure seem to do a lot of waiting around.
Faster cars, planes and trains have been paralleled as a goal by the mission to make faster computers, food and messaging devices. However, all of this seems in vain when we have to spend 30 minutes getting home in our fast cars because of slow traffic, an hour at the airport going through security to get onto our fast planes and an eternity to make up for the poor quality fast food we so readily ingest.
Long lines can be found anywhere, and some of the longest lines are filled with teenagers and youthful adults waiting, very impatiently, for the fastest rides in the world. Americans are obsessed with speed and often complain about waiting for their coveted speed. If one looks far enough back in history, it took all day to prepare dinner, that’s how it worked and most people didn’t complain. Americans now are so spoiled by their need for speed they often complain about waiting two minutes for their dinner to heat up in the microwave.
Patience may be a virtue, but in a fast paced world getting what we want when we want it often feels best. How many times have we jumped the gun just to find out it would have been better to tolerate delay? How many times have we decided that same wait probably wasn’t worth it in the first place?
