Rush rush... RUSH!! Seems to be modern life's clarion call. Maybe I am out of step, but I'm a little tired of the hurried pace that has been thrust on us... and willingly accepted by too many of us.

Being a practical sort (most of the time) and ever-curious, I wonder what the result of this adrenaline-rush mentality is? Does more work/play really get done? Or are we fooling ourselves?

From my own experience, my guess is that all the rushing makes us less productive. Let me cite some anecdotal evidence. In the trades, the biggest time wasters are not the line at the Home Depot, waiting in traffic or being stood up at the "altar"... they are mistakes! Being a do-it-yourself reader, I'm sure you've assembled a confusing thousand-part kit, such as a desk, toy, computer table or even a set of tall metal shelves. And I bet that you probably did not thoroughly read the "hieroglyphic" instructions.

There you are, with the thing half-assembled and suddenly you realize one of the pieces is reversed. It was an easy mistake to make. Alas, you are forced to disassemble most of your work to remove the backwards piece. Not only do you feel foolish, but an hour project just morphed into a double-espresso moment!

Speed is good. Efficiency is great. Wanton rushing is both wasteful and destructive. In my last message I bemoaned the deluge of "spam" email... surely a time-waster by any measure. Yet in our hurry to delete these unwanted ads, we must also take care to slow down, breathe and give consideration to worthy inquiries and important people.

There is a time to rush and a time to stop and smell the flowers. There are events that justify heart-pounding, white-knuckle speed... and times when speed kills!

Though I have never fished, I admire the mythic slow pace and laid-back attitude of the stereotypical fisherman. A friend who fished once told me that catching fish was important but not the reason he fished.

He loved fishing for one reason... when you fish, you can't do anything else!

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Jerry Alonzy, Webmaster -The Natural Handyman

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