Can we talk?

TIME

    Ever feel like there aren't enough hours in a day? The weeks or months go by too quickly? Not enough time to smell the roses? Your kids grew up in a flash? Or your whole life flew by before you noticed?
    Seems like everybody is in a hurry and no one ever has enough time, whether it's not enough hours in a day to get everything done, or not enough years to live. And how often do you hear someone say something like, "Everything is so fast today. Our culture is so hectic. Too bad we can't relax like in the old days."
    I was a little surprised to read words similar to that in a letter, written (pause) in the 1800's by Thomas Jefferson's daughter! She commented that the world was always in a race and she longed for the easy days of her youth when she sat with family and friends on the porch of Monticello and watched the sun set on the horizon. She longed for a simpler time.
    Wordsworth wrote that"The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, We lay waste our powers. A sordid boon." He spent a lot of time lamenting a lost innocence and abandonment in time as we grow older.
    I propose that our world may not be changing or racing as much as we think, or at least no more than it ever has. It may simply be the human condition that as we age and see more change in our bodies, in our physical surroundings,and in culture, we perceive that the world is moving faster. Human nature seems to be the same throughout the centuries.
    A poem from Donne in the 1600's (or was it Milton?) made the same complaint. It's our nature to long for "the good old days", with a slower pace of life and an easier world. What we really at heart mean is when we were younger.