Busyness

Everyone seems to be very busy.  Schedules are tight.  Information, data, and deadlines overflow and blend into an endless pattern that always seems to result in my being late for something or someone.  The tools of life that started out as vehicles to a more relaxing time with others have brought a fundamental change to life, as you and I know it.  Candidly, the change has not been good.  We work harder, longer, and with more intensity than at any point in our history.  Families are separated in ways nobody imagined a generation ago.
In the chaos of it all, it is easy to forget the fundamentals reflecting the best human values and priorities.  Ideals such as compassion are abandoned for getting ahead and winning.  Mercy takes a second seat to justice and fairness.  Even community is sacrificed so we can indulge.  Everywhere I look, the goal is getting to the goal first.  I wonder, at what cost?
We are not the first to lose sight of what is important.  Every generation is caught in the swirl at one time or another.  Even in ancient Israel, they had firsthand experience with the problem.  “During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers-“Hellenists”-toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines.” (Acts 6.1)  Then problem then and now lies in our response.
Do we care enough to make a change in our lives?  Are we willing to sacrifice as much for what is right, as we are to win?  Is having enough, enough?
The questions are easy.  Answering them in a way that is consistent with what I say I know to be true is something else.  My answers beg for change.  My answers demand a different response today than what I did yesterday.  My answers are idealistic, yet with compromise seems to be the logical alternative.
I cannot solve the conundrum for anyone other than myself.  I cannot live in any other moment than the present.