Take your time, but hurry up

Many people throughout this old world are obsessed with time and speed. I will be the first to admit that I am one of those creatures. If you want confirmation of this, just ask my wife. Betty has been putting up with this for over sixty-four years and deserves a medal. When we are getting ready to go somewhere I often say, "Take your time honey, I am in no hurry." She just looks at me like I am a hopeless time freak.

Before you get too critical of me, take a moment about yourself. Do you have any instant mashed potatoes, instant gravy, instant coffee, instant oatmeal in your refrigerator or cupboards? Mine are filled with that sort of stuff. Do you have a microwave? Do you ever wish it would hurry up? I know one thing; I have a computer that is far too slow. It seems to me that it takes forever to download a message with a picture in it. Many of these messages are important! For instance a picture of a cute dog or some other animal along with a message wishing me a great day and if I send it on to ten other people in the next two minutes I will have good luck. Give me a break.

I have more time on my hands now than I ever had in my life; yet I constantly rush about like a chicken with its head cut off.

Most of us seem to be hung up on speed and time. We keep records on how fast an athlete runs the one hundred yard dash, the two-twenty, the mile and on and on.

Watching cars racing around a track draws more people than any other sport; or so they tell me. Back when I was a youngster there was an expression, going like sixty, that indicated speed. If you held a race today and the cars raced along at sixty; there would be nobody in the stands. This has been going on for years. When I was very young I rode in a buggy pulled by a spirited horse. I am sure Dad used this horse on purpose. Why would I think that? Because after church, Dad would often get in a horse and buggy race with a neighbor as they left the church grounds. My mother did not appreciate this but, like my wife Betty, she put up with her husband’s love of speed.

So we humans want to speed things up and get on with it. I don’t know if this is bad or not! However I do know that when I exert pressure on Betty to speed things up a bit it upsets her and that is a bad thing.

Folks, I don’t know about you but I am going to try to slow down a bit and count my blessings!

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