Time... and Fast Food Culture

This morning, I ran out the door to go to work, having quickly slapped a piece of ham and a piece of cheese between two slices of bread, while half a toasted bagel hung from my mouth because I had no more free hands.

As I got in the car, I suddenly realized why "fast" food even exists. Seemed like — if even just for a moment — I had become one of those...

The trumpet of a daffodil

Because We Don't Have TIME...

Of course, a day is precisely as long as it was when I was a little kid, and I can intellectually wrap myself around that fact.

And that's not the problem.

The problem is what (how many things) we need to — or expect to — fit into the same kind of 24-hour period in 2019, vs in 1969.

I suppose it's a case of "there's no such thing as something for nothing," but even though it can be argued that we are better off than ever, people seldom stop to look at the human cost of that better off.

We are constantly running to keep up, so we have "fast" food.

I'd really rather have "slow" food...

Grape mahonia about to start blooming...

Welcome to the Good Old Days!

I suppose that as every generation ages, we go through a phase of looking backwards with a certain degree of ennui, looking at the "Good Old Days" through our individual rose colored lenses of perception.

Truthfully? I have little desire to "go back" to some point in the past... I quite like the perks of our day and age!

But that doesn't stop me from questioning their emotional and financial "price tag." Choices have consequences...

People are fond of pointing to the reality that fewer people than ever are living "below the extreme poverty line." But throwing "global" numbers at "individual" situations seems disingenuous. Someone having to work 80 hours a week in London purely to keep a roof over their heads isn't really related to someone making $2 a day in Madagascar.

The numbers economists and politicians don't want us to look at involve the relationship between "work hours needed" to acquire some standard unit of living, like housing, a typical meal, or something similar.

The Powers That Be prefer to report information that makes them look good. Or information that makes their opponents look bad.

One of the first daffodils of spring...

Meanwhile, Keep on Runnin'...

Meanwhile, I found myself gulping a bagel because there simply wasn't enough time in my morning to process "what needed to be done."

"When something isn't the way you'd like them to be, change things..."

Reorganizing, restructuring, simplifying... that's what's on the menu for the rest of 2019!

Thanks for reading!

How about YOU? Do you find yourself often having to rush? Are you "keeping up" with everything you need to keep up with? Does it seem like life gets "faster and faster?" Do you find yourself not having time to eat? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190321 16:48 PST
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