Deadline

What would happen if the world slowed down? If we worked 4 day weeks, 5 hours a day? If that report could be submitted on September 10th instead of August 30th? What would happen if we had the time to walk slowly, plant gardens, raise pets and children with joyous attention, play games, go on picnics, read more books? What would happen?

Perhaps the greatest brainwashing done in this last century is that time itself is finite. The world is 'fast-paced', we're part of the 'rat-race', we must 'keep up'... our lingo, our outlook, our very existence seems to be controlled by this unquestioned fear of being left behind as the rest of the world hurtles toward success. Is success a series of time-bombs?

Deadline. What a truly disgustingly charged word. It traces its roots to the time of concentration camps and prisons, where guards were instructed to shoot any prisoner caught past a certain distance beyond the prison boundary. Cross the line, and you're dead.

Rat-race. Another terrible expression. Only rats in traps are made to race.

Prison. Traps.

Life?

Why?