Invariably, what does everyone say when you ask them “how they’ve been”? Busy. It seems that has become the stock answer in the last few years. How did we all suddenly get so busy? What has fundamentally changed?
I’ll venture to say–not much really.
Instead I think we are succumbing to a deeper trend, much like a falling leaf might respond to a rushing stream when it hits the water.
Change is accelerating in the outside world. The rate at which human knowledge is doubling (somewhere around every 18 months currently) is quickening. We are bombarded by more and more sources of information. More data to process, more stimulus to ingest.
This is the river and our personal lives the leaves being abruptly rushed along.
The notion of time and change speeding up has been a fascination for me since the early 90′s when I first heard Terence McKenna and his theories of time. He often spoke about accelerating waves of change. Ten years ago, hearing his mad ravings I often wondered what that “accelerated future” would feel like and now I know. Its the “blitzkrieg of busy” that we find ourselves in and its becoming increasingly more disturbing to me.
Its frightening because I’m starting to wonder if the rush of change is blinding us to what is really taking place. The level of distraction seems to be increasing and something deep within me feels like we have to counter that force. Not out of a reluctance to change, but so that we may be fully aware of the signals coming from our environment.
About ten or fifteen years ago I heard a Native American speaker (don’t remember which Nation) say that their Elders warned them long ago that as the world speeds up, they must slow down. Those words chill my bones these days because of the acceleration we’re experiencing.
There is no doubt we’re facing some pretty extreme threats these days… global warming, eco-system collapse, fragile economies, a reckless military-industrial-oil power block determined to bring about WW3… the list goes on. Who knows what the world is going to look like in 20 years. More and more I’m feeling in my bones that its IMPERATIVE that I follow that advice and start SLOWING DOWN.
Part of that process for me is that I’m starting to meditate more. I recently saw the film director David Lynch leading a panel discussion on meditation and his regiment is twice a day for a half hour. Knowing how INSANE film schedules are (he has never broken that habit throughout his whole career) I realized that any excuse for not doing it is nonsense.
I hope that this will personally help me slow down; I’ll report back on this down the road.
Whatever your path, I suggest you find a way to unplug from the insane acceleration of change. It may be our only way that we can sharpen our senses enough to know what to do as the excrement approaches the cooling device.
We’re all going to need to be highly attuned to navigate those waves of change–getting off of the busy train is a first step.