As a whole, I think Americans are in a tremendous rush to get 'stuff' done. It seems that everything is a contest. My first recollection of this is when we were going to be the 'first' to the moon. It was terribly exciting, but in the grand scheme of things was it that important?
When I was working at the hospital, one of my co-workers complained that a worker who was from Georgia moved too slow. She said she could crawl faster than this woman could walk. The general consensus among the 'Northerners' was that 'Southerners' moved too slow.
Well, when it comes to living life, that is OK with me. So imagine my chagrin when I was playing my first game of Sudoku on my new Kindle Fire yesterday and was told when I finished how many other times I beat. I had no idea this was a contest. If I am playing this to relax, why do I want to be in a hurry?
And this is not the only game that time limits are applied to. Seems like a lot of people vie to see who can finish a New York Times Crossword in the fastest time. Unless you are in the annual contest, who cares?
If you play Solitaire on your computer, you can choose the 'timed game' option. Now I ask you: If you are playing a game where you have less than a 3% chance of actually winning, do you really care how fast you can lose?
I always say that life is not a race to the finish line, but I think I must be in the minority.
I'm with you. I was at the olive bar at Whole Foods today and a man next to me was slowly ladling olives into his container. I didn't want to rush him and said, "I have all the time in the world," and smiled, so he wouldn't think I was being sarcastic. He looked at me really oddly. I guess the idea that a New Yorker could have all the time in the world was totally alien.
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