Partly it's the pace everyone seems to be living these days. I don't remember folks being in such a rush when I was a kid. We did have to actually wait for stuff. Packages took their time getting to the house, we'd have to wait until someone got home before we could call them, and cooking food took a bit longer.
At the grocery store yesterday, as I was putting things on the counter for the clerk to scan, I asked him if he ever got tired of having to rush. He grinned at me in his twenty-something way and said he loved it. Said he couldn't do anything slowly, and besides, they have a counter of some kind that tallies how quickly they scan each customer. He said he was number one in getting each person through quickly, and he was proud of it. He brought up the fact for him that it was a daily challenge that he enjoyed.
So while I whizzed at getting things on the counter, he pushed them over the scanner as quickly as possible. And, no, there wasn't another customer behind me at that time. Hurrying really wasn't necessary, but with the store making it a policy with the clerks, guess we all had to zoom through the process.
And it's everywhere. You can buy frozen meals that look and taste like you spent hours and hours on them. Send an email; it's faster than regular mail. And my own children rush through conversations like someone's holding them for ransom. Obviously, it's contagious.
But I ask you, really...what are we in such a hurry for?
