A number of years ago I traveled to rural Georgia for a horse show. Between my son’s competitions, my husband and I decided to explore the area. We came across a sign for an exotic animal farm where guests can see and feed animals while staying in their cars. Being the adventurers we are, we decided to check it out. After paying our admission fee, the guide gave us each a paper sack filled with food pellets saying, “The animals love these. Just roll down your window, drive slow on the dirt road, and they will come to you.”
So innocently we rolled down the windows and started down the dirt road in front of us. No sooner had we rounded a hilly bend, when we saw all kinds of animals…zebras, ostriches, water buffalo, donkeys and others. As soon as they heard our car, they came rushing…and yes I mean rushing. Have you ever had a water buffalo ram into the side of your car? Luckily no dents. But let me tell you, ostriches have very long necks and having one twist its head to look at you eye to eye in the front seat is a bit unsettling. These animals were crazy for the food pellets. The more we threw them out the window, the more demanding they became. The situation became less humorous when a zebra, apparently unhappy about how fast my husband could throw the food pellets out the window, reached his head in and took a chomp on my husband’s arm…thank goodness it didn’t break any skin, but left a nasty bruise. After that, we rolled up the windows and got out of that exotic animal farm as fast as we could.
This memory came to mind as I read an interesting article this week about the fast pace of our 21rst century. It seems everything has quickened and everyone is complaining about how busy they are. There’s speed dating, and time management apps, digital technology that promises quick connections, the voice of Siri lets us send voice texts, even a group of Californians that are promoting all liquid meals to cut down on cooking time. But why do we still feel so rushed?
Some say the key is to detox digitally from time to time to regain our peace, but is this really the solution? Can we blame technology for our harried sense of being? The fact remains that time has not changed – we still have 12 months in a year, 7 days in a week, and 24 hours in a day. It’s not technology that has sped things up, it’s how we think about time that has changed. WE have decided how to integrate technology into our everyday. Perhaps it is our ideas of efficiency, fueled by technology, that has put us in a rush. Emails and texts come at all hours of the day and we feel obliged to answer them within a specific time frame all in the name of efficiency. We go on vacation and continue to “check in” with the workplace all in the name of efficiency. We have linked the concept of speed with the concept of efficiency and this has left all of us in a whirlwind.
I am not bashing our leaps in technology, but I am challenging our thoughts about time and efficiency. What kind of world do we want to live in? When things are faster, does that make them better? When we are always accessible through our technology, are we able to fully relax? If we feel pressed for time is it the technology, or the boundaries and priorities we have set? Just like the frenzied animals at the exotic animal farm, food became their motivation and they no longer were capable of existing in their natural habitat eating typical food from the food chain. Is our digital technology making us like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland always checking his watch? As counselors, we like to say if you want to change your behavior, change your thoughts. In the quest for living mindfully, do our thoughts about technology and efficiency need to be challenged?
Just asking….
