Patience

By tadgeobrien, 11 August, 2012

Lately I have been wondering a lot about how I perceive the world around me and how other interact in the world. I am not sure if it is just my own observation or if it people have become less patient and more careless with the world around them?

First it seems to me that there is a real carelessness on the highway. I feel like I see more and more people talking on their cellphones (is that call more important then my life), not signalling lane changes, (I am really not a mind reader), and in general driving distracted. Now I am not the best driver in the world. I do tend to have a heavy foot, but I often times feel that I am more aware then others are around me. I tend to have a sense of where the closest cars are to me, how fast the car I am driving can stop, and an idea of where I am going.

This leads to my second observation related to Patience lately. Our culture has changed to an instant gratification, instant access culture in a lot of ways. Again I am part of this culture, but I have recently felt this more than usual. People seem to want or even demand things in a manner that seem like more of a snap judgement than a realistic thought out process. As I am sitting here writing this I also wonder if it might be part perception on my part. Have the people that seem to be overly demanding, simply been patient while waiting? Or have those waiting patiently been pushed off so many times by the proverbial squeaky wheel that they no longer can wait?

Just some thoughts on how life has felt lately. Like there is too much to do, not enough time to do it in, and an overwhelming sense of urgency to complete it all.

So have we as a society lost a bit of our patience as we have continually attempted to be more productive? Does time now own our lives as opposed to us managing time?