Quick! Take a sharp right into the fast food parking lot! Quicker!! Hurry up, decide what you want, and quickest of all, rush to the window, hurry to dig out the coins to make a perfect dollar and grab the food. Say “thanks” if you happen to remember. Then, peel out, unwrap, eat, swallow, drink, try to enjoy and drive. Wow. Phew…

What’s up with revving our lives from 0 to 60 on the speedometer from morning till night, and why do we feel the “need for speed” when we’re out of the car and in the office, at home or on vacation?

January, February, March … July, August … December then January again. The time flies. Deadlines, fine lines, headlines and grocery lines – our lives are in constant motion. Our culture has done its best to encourage fast-paced, fast moving lives. We move at incredible speeds and seem to be unable to stop. I dare say its been inbred in us, but where is this leading?

We work, we make money and we work again. The enjoyment factor seems to diminsh. Even with my own experiences, I myself have worked feverently and did not find the enjoyment in it. Then, in hindsight, I realize how important it is to enjoy my life and not move so darn quickly.

Our desire to be apart and at the top of the competitiveness in society also lends to our hunger for speed. It is inferred that we need to be not only the best, but also the best in the fastest time possible.

I wish we could take a break. I’d like to smile at someone in the mall and have them smile back at me, not look the other way thinking of their afternoon schedules. I’d like to see someone congratulate another individual on an achievement rather than being jealous they themselves did not win or do as well. I’d like not to have a heart-attack when someone, late for a meeting, crosses three lanes of traffic and embodies James Bond charactaristics as they dart for their next “crucial” meeting. I’d like to see people happy in the grocery line in the supermarket, not talking on their cell phone, racing through their life as they are checking out their items. Just Imagine.

So, let us be comfortable with who we are and what we’re doing. OK, accept it – he builds Lego castles better than you, and she is a bit smarter than you, but just in math. They are better construction workers or teachers than you are, but that’s OK. We all put our pants on the same way – one leg at a time (or at least I hope).

Slow down, breathe and eat the hamburger from that fast food restaraunt. It’s good, isn’t it? I mean, now that you really taste it. Speaking of fast food restaraunts, in France one will rarely see a drive-thru. Rather, they have walk thurs – no cars allowed. Hmmm. If only, if only … OK, I won’t say it.

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