Words of Wisdom: Makes You Think

This is excerpt of an email forward I got, maybe, 6 years ago that really stuck with me. I never found out the original author, or in what context it was first produced, so I have no way to site the source. All I know is that it rings all too true in the society that is currently bustling around outside my window.

"The paradox of our rime in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences and less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge but less judgement, more experts, yet more problems, More medicine, but less wellness. We dink too much, smoke too much, spend to recklessly, laugh to little, drive to fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love to seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life, but not life to years. We've been all the way to the Moon and back, but we have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space, but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hole more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses and broken homes.

These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything frorm cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom."

I think that someone mentioned that this speec came from a preacher. If it is, he (or she) is a wise person with a much wider view of life than most people. I salute the original author and add my approval and thoughts to this message. When the world around you moves so fast, that it all becomes a blur, it mught be time to sit out, and wait for everyone elxe to catch their breath too. It almost seems as if the world is hurring up to destroy itself in a blaze of spotlights and shopping sprees, politics and dissapointments. Who knows, maybe someday, history will look back on our generation and say "They were not all bad." Maybe.