Speed

Everyone accepts that things happen fast nowadays.

Yet, some aspects of life can’t be sped-up; indeed, any attempt to cut-corners or accelerate the process usually has negative consequences… hangry, tired, listless – readmission.

No matter the speed, the turning-over of activity, there is a certain bandwidth that is constant; walking, driving, peeing.

The media – news stories come and go, flying into consciousness then, gone before you know it. Music – what was top ten is now flash in the pan.

The rhythm of Jazz.

Before the horse was domesticated, the fastest a human could travel was the speed of a sprint, unless you were a long-distance runner, in which case, you could travel at the speed of a trot; a Bushman shuffle.

Then, four or five millennia, and, the speed of horse, superseded by cars and trains and planes;

The world shrinking, coming together, East meets West and off we go.

We are still apart, our cultures separated by history.

How do we reconcile the shrinking of the microprocessor, the discovery of inner-space with the 24/7 day? Our movement through time is constant.

Inconsistent.

We lead a split existence.

Half rushing headlong into tomorrow, the other, dawdling in the past;

We can’t decide whether to stop or go; green light rapidly cycling with red. No amber. No pause, no collection.

And, time stops when we shut our eyes, when we drift to sleep.