Why be in such a hurry?

I think that if I had my life to live over, I'd slow down. Right from the very start. Maybe if I had been held back for a year in the first grade, it would have been good for me. To teach me that I don't have to be in a hurry to learn. Learning might have come easier that way. If I had had more time to mature. To ready myself for learning. But one is taught to push one's self. Even before one is ready. I learned that in school. I learned that at home. And so learning wasn't always enjoyable. Because I was supposed to learn too fast. Faster than I wanted to learn. I think one has to be taught to savor learning. And that takes time. A slow motion approach. It's similar to eating food. Don't eat fast. Don't gorge one's self. But savor the food and drink. But some of us are taught to do everything fast. In a hurry. As if we're gonna run out of time. Maybe that's why I ended up writing for newspapers. On deadline. To hurry, hurry, hurry. To cover breaking news in a hurry. One must think fast. Write fast. I fit in. Because I was groomed for this kind of life. And to write under pressure. In a newsroom. Where there's noise. Disturbance. Frequent interruptions. But finally, I learned to slow down. Maybe about 20 years ago. And especially in the last 10 years. Since I retired. I began to ask myself, why be in such a hurry? It's nice to slow down. To savor the moment. Rather than rushing into the next moment. --Jim Broede