The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

The need for speed

Gotta have it, must get it, and oh, what’s next? Where would we be without our favorite technology to flout or the latest shiny must-have gizmo to show off? Millions are made forecasting and projecting what the near future holds. We don’t want to let anything get in our way in the marketplace where time is money and money is God.

Ingenuity and necessity are prime movers, a not altogether bad combination. Each drives the other. The potential to produce something astounding is put to the test when that potential enters public arenas. Internet “influencers” and targeted advertising are yesterday’s slick cover magazines. If we cannot see the similarities, then buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride.

We’re not so different than other world cultures in our desire to achieve something better in life. It’s just that we equate dollars and ‘having’ with happiness. Yet it was with deep pleasure that our bandwidth took a giant leap upward this week, over 25 times greater Mbps than before. Will we be content with such an increase over time, or will we continue to ride the wave in search of something bigger, faster and flashier than our latest contentments. I’d say we’ll last only a few months before we are tempted to upgrade again. What can be said when consumerism is the rule of the day?

With unease in Ukrain reminding us of our fragile state in this supply line age, the specter of economic hardship here and abroad is very real. The concern is no longer a distant problem ‘over there.’ The Russian conflict touches many of us close to home who have never before encountered mass migrations of people around the world. Unparalleled media coverage in this era of video phones makes it more difficult to fly under the radar. Informing the world close up of the atrocities and senselessness of war makes us take stock. Families on each side love their spouses and children and extended families no less fervently than we do. Unfortunately, that is the face of war as well.

Such tensions are clarifying to the extent that nearly all artifice is stripped away when plain truth stands before us, raw and unadorned. What is critical to our lives and what is not? It is the question Jesus raised every day of his ministry through intentional engagement and the twin elements of thought and action, though removed in place and time from our own. It was a message far more complicated and less selfish than ‘let go and let God.’ His was a message of a different kind, a voice calling us all from the wilderness, one that didn’t sugar coat or dance around what we face.

Why, then, do we feel so compelled to cling to a fast-paced and revealing culture that more often than not alienates and let’s us down in the end? It’s not about whether we can coax even more speed from the connections we share. It is about having connections at all, especially the nurturing kind.

Greater access and speed do not equal more compassion. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade to a better service provider that we know and trust. Any takers?