Tempus Fugit
So ends April.
My day-to-day life has been so busy lately that
I haven't paused to consider the fact that
one-third of the year has already passed. It's hard
to believe how quickly the first four months have
flown by. And yet that seems to be par for the
course. Every year, I find myself commenting, "Wow,
where did the time go?" It's often said that time
flies when you're having fun, but I don't know...
time just seems to fly, period. Is that just life
as an adult with responsibilities? Or is it the
frenetic pace of our modern lives?
I sometimes find myself daydreaming about a
simpler,
slower life. What if there was time enough in
the day to accomplish what you needed to do and
still have time left over to walk on the beach at
sunset, work on an arts & crafts project, or
read War and Peace? I guess that's called
"retirement," but something seems wrong about
running on the hamster wheel at full bore for most
of your adult life just to be able to spend your
final years playing shuffleboard and drinking mint
juleps. Why can't we "retire" till we're 50, then
work till we die?
Recently, a friend tried to get me and three
other friends to "meet" online to play a computer
game together. We ended up getting started late at
night because, out of the five of us, four were
working till after 10:00 p.m.—and the fifth
couldn't make it because he was out of town on
business. Sure, this was just a random episode, not
any kind of representative sample of society at
large, but it gave me pause. I'm working 60-hour
weeks because I have to work several crappy jobs
just to make ends meet until I find a "real" job.
But my friends who have good jobs are working
comparably long hours. That seems to be the norm
these days in America.
A recent
study by the World Tourism Organization found
that, of the countries studied, the United States
ranked last in average number of vacation days.
While hardworking Japanese enjoyed 25 vacation days
per year, and Italians disappeared for a whopping
42 days (certo), Americans took off only 13
days per year. I'm certainly no poster boy for the
Overworked American; I've had too many "vacation"
days over the past two years. But I do believe the
pace of life in modern America is getting out of
hand. Don't believe me? Spend some time on the
freeways and surface streets of any major
metropolitan city during business hours, and let
the horns and middle fingers tell you.
If I had a point, I think I lost it somewhere in
the second paragraph. Having worked a 14-hour day,
I'm writing this late at night, and am not as
focused as I would be if I still had 14 years of
retirement left until I turned 50. But I hope your
own busy job allows you time enough to read
this.
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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What is "The Daily Strick"?
I have long called
myself a writer, but too often I don't do
what a writer must do daily: write. So
you, dear reader, are the beneficiary of
my resolution to make a positive change in
at least one area of my life. Every single
day of this new year, I will write
something, anything, and post it here. It
is my intention to use this daily exercise
to jump-start my too-long-dormant creative
energies, and perhaps generate some
worthwhile material this year. Hopefully
you will find at least an occasional
amusement or insight in my daily
musings.
Today's
Column
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Previously...
4/29:
Camaraderie
4/28:
A
Mis Hondureños
4/27:
Sunday
Night Ramblings
4/26:
Hair
Band Nostalgia
4/25:
Consequences
4/24:
Lemon
Curry?
4/23:
My
Father Midas
4/22:
Earth
Day
4/21:
Joshua
Tree, Part III
4/20:
Joshua
Tree, Part II
4/19:
Joshua
Tree, Part I
4/18:
Royal
Flush
4/17:
A
Long Strange Trip
4/16:
A
New Line to Back
4/15:
Still
Writing
4/14:
Conspiracy
Theory
4/13:
Los
Coronados
4/12:
Y2K
in Y2K3
4/11:
Slow
Glass
4/10:
Freedom
of Speech
4/9:
Why
We're Fighting
4/8:
Eucalyptus
Memories
4/7:
Sleep
4/6:
Writing,
Just Not Here
4/5:
Sci-Files
Trivia
4/4:
Sobering
Up
4/3:
Great
White Hope
4/2:
Entropy
4/1:
Peace
on Earth
Previous months in
The
Archive
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