“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…” (Dr. Bob Moorehead, Words Aptly Spoken 1995)
These of the words are from the poem The Paradox of Time, that is often attributed to George Carlin, the Dalai Lama or an Unknown Columbine Student after the 1999 Columbine Shootings but were written by Bob Moorehead and he titled it The Paradox of Age.
I first read this in 1997 when a friend shared it with me in an email. During lockdown while cleaning up my office, I found the printed version and read it again. This could have been written in 2020 and still carries so much relevance. So why do we have the same issues 25 years later?
Steven Denn reminds us in this quote, “You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice.” Why are we making the same mistakes or choices?
This is a time of huge uncertainty, worry and fear but there are so many positives. For one… while the world went crazy and stockpiled on toilet paper, there was a decline in the sale of watches. We had to stay home and stop rushing everywhere, this gave us time to think about what was important to us and we reawakened our relationships with those closest to us. In Italy which was one of the hardest impacted countries people sang and played musical instruments on their balconies and reconnected with their neighbours.
We cleaned our houses and realised how much clutter we have and how little it fulfils us. We paid off our credit cards and had a taste of what debt free feels like. We lived in comfortable clothes and enjoyed the freedom of being ourselves without having to dress to impress. We breathed clean air and saw beauty around our local neighbourhoods that we usually miss as we drive past.
People started questioning how they worked and how much time they spent at work. Managers learnt they can trust their teams to do get work done without needing continual supervision. Some of us have had to soul search and find new ways to make a living as companies, professions and roles disappeared on a daily basis.
We started valuing and acknowledging people who make our make a difference in sectors like healthcare , postal services, supermarkets, waste removal, manufacturing, emergency services and pharmacies to name a few. I hope that this will teach us about being passionate about work and that CEO’s are not the people that make the biggest difference in the world. I hope this makes businesses think about purpose and not just profit. I hope it makes us think about the way we work. I hope it makes us think about the basics of love, kindness and being a good human being. I hope this makes us think about getting back to basics!