As the World Turns

 

Do you ever feel like this; too many things to do and not enough time to get it all done?  For me, this picture is perfect; too many words to write, too many books to read.  At times, it is easy to feel like the little girl in this picture, though I haven’t worn pigtails in a very long time!

Life has a way of making one feel overwhelmed at times.  Probably more often than we’d like it to.  We make lists and check off our progress, plan to tackle one thing only to have something else take its place.  Inevitably, there are a million little distractions, interruptions, commotions, disruptions, or interferences that erupt to steal our time and attention. 

I tend to think that without these disturbances, we might get bored.  On the other hand, we could probably finish our “To Do List” in a normal amount of time.  But again, finishing that list day after day, week after week, would be blasé.  At that point, I would be climbing the walls, looking for a distraction.

Aren’t we, as human beings, confusing?  We have things one way and we want them another.  Does that stem from a world of instant gratification that we live in?  I personally, would love to world to go back to days where families lived on their front porches.  Yes, a world of rotary phones, one television set per household with only a handful of channels, typewriters (okay – as I writer, I would miss my laptop and spellcheck).  Neighbors who walked across the street in order to hold a face-to-face conversation;  neighborhoods that came together while their kids played in the streets without fear of being run over or abducted.  It seemed a time when life was unhurried and so much simpler. 

Maybe I was born in the wrong era?  Or maybe I just feel that we rely too heavily on the trappings of the digital age.  Whatever happened to working toward something; the joy that enveloped you when you were finally able to buy that item of focus because you put some skin in the game and worked hard to get it?  We certainly don’t appreciate things or people the way we used to, the way we should.  I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when my four year old grandchildren become adults.  I believe that their lives will be much more difficult than mine and that makes me very sad.