Wham Bam … Thank you, Mam

Why...

Do people see speed as the answer to all our problems? Whether it’s streaming data, messaging a mate or having a pizza delivered barely seconds after placing an order. Whatever happened to the delight of anticipation? Don’t get me wrong. Obviously, some things naturally improve with waiting time, like sex, or improve with ageing like cheese, wine and teenagers. Other things such as fashion, sixties sitcoms, and taxes don’t. This plea is not a request to return to listening to a computer’s rendition of Greensleeves for a decade, while trying to get through to your mobile provider. I just think a little wait enhances the prize. I’d far prefer to sit and smell someone preparing food in a kitchen than wait for the putt-putt-putting of a scooter with a meal the temperature of an hour-long dead corpse.

...and another thing

I suggest each day you look at your to-do list and ask what needs to be instant, what has no need for immediacy and what can wait. Of all life’s inevitables, obviously, death is top of my list of things that can wait. However, there are a few things that aren’t far behind. School reunions, comeback tours of average bands, or the reintroduction of cereals no one liked in the first place. Instant has to be medical care and chocolate. Nothing else is super urgent.

I was told a story about the late F1 Driver Niki Lauda. Not sure it’s true, but it makes a point. Each day he would delete most messages on his email and throw away most of the mail unopened

“If it’s really urgent, they will contact me. The rest is just plastic-surgery-like urgent. Looking like it needs fixing when it doesn’t.”

...and another thing

They say the British can form an orderly queue of one, so perhaps my willingness to wait for certain things is inbred. Certainly, in England, the only thing more sacred than the queue, is being able to tut loudly when someone dares to jump it.

However, waiting in line for something is infinitely better than the great fear of missing out. Which goes back to my regret of losing the art of anticipation. How awful life would be if it was all instant gratification; the more instant it becomes, the more joyless. So wait a bit… except, where is my bar of chocolate? I need it now…

 

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