Instant coffee, instant pudding, instant mashed potatoes. Instant approval, instant replay, instant messaging. Instant relief, instant gratification … instant life.
The idea behind all these “instant” products and services does not merely illustrate a growing trend for convenience, but also – and more importantly – the ever-increasing notion that people believe they are constantly wasting time.
We buy our mashed potatoes powdered, our rice precooked, our delicate coffees and teas in sports drink form. The foods and drinks we consume are getting more complex, not in taste, but instead in contributing to our fast-paced lifestyle. Now we’re even trying to eat faster.
Foods are not the only problem; speed dating, mass-market matchmaking and the media have led to a rapid maturation of younger generations. Only 50 years ago, suitors were still asking permission from fathers to date their daughters. Today, community health centers field calls from 12-year-olds looking for free condoms and pregnancy tests.
In modern American society, most people are taught to always want more, to give less and to be “more productive.” Yet, the ethos behind all of the beliefs and philosophies of life encourage us to give more value to the time we have here on Earth. These philosophies stress that our “instant lives” belittle what we were originally meant to do. Instant life simply illustrates the irresponsibly self-indulgent attitude of instant gratification, by contrasting it with the adage, “patience is a virtue.”
Life always feels like a waste of time, and now is never good enough for the average American. The here and now is where we live, but so few enjoy their stay because they want to be elsewhere. Our time is less valuable because we feel as if we are not allowed to make things valuable unless we can have them now. We’ve lost sight of the time and length of the journey that is life and in doing so, we’ve lost an integral part of what makes mankind virtuous: patience.
As a practicing and upstanding Catholic, I know and understand the merits of working for what is yours. Time is never wasted if you throw yourself wholly into the project at hand, whether it be mending one’s wrongful ways or trying to find the most congruent application of Catholicism, or even simply making a breakfast worth eating. Patience allows us to travel roads – and create those bacon, egg and pancake breakfasts during weekdays – which are simply not available to those looking for the faster track of life.
Chris Ong is a computer science senior from Destrehan, La.
