If you would have asked me last week how I was doing, I
would have answered with a statement along the lines of being busy and not
having enough time to get things accomplished. Come to think of it, I find most
of my friends and acquaintances living this very same busy lifestyle almost
every day. Today however was different. No major obligations. No important
tasks. No timeline or schedule to follow. In this society we all are a part of,
it seems that days like today are becoming few and far between.
A typical
day in most of our lives looks something like this: wake up far earlier than
we’d like, prepare for our day by eating breakfast with the seemingly endless
noise of negativity coming from the morning news, drive to work or school later
than we had planned, sit through our day for hours on end, drive home thinking
of all we still have to do, complete some form of “homework” (supper, dishes,
school work, etc), and try and catch some rest before this cycle begins all
over again the very next day…and the day after that…and so on and so forth.
Today,
while being caught bored and making tasks to accomplish to occupy my time, a
thought began to form in my head. How did we end up living like this? Why do we
do this to ourselves? When did we forget that we are human beings, not human
doings?
Let’s look
back at a typical day in the life of me, Derek Berkshire. Kicking around a
soccer ball, making the world’s greatest mud pies (you all know you’re guilty
of making a few in your day too), climbing trees, creating the next famous work
of art using my unique art supplies…crayons, building forts throughout the
house, and living in my self-created world. I had no agenda. No
responsibilities. No schedule dictating my actions.
Don’t get
me wrong, I am well aware that this life I now live, a more adult life with
actual responsibilities, is vastly different from that of my youth. However,
what changed to make my life and perhaps yours too, one with a seemingly
endless to-do list, so different from the life I once lived? When did a family
supper, a meaningful conversation with a friend, random trips to the movies,
spontaneous phone calls, game nights, and all of those other “past
times” we used to partake in become inferior to the life we now live? The life
full of obligations, bills, paperwork, house cleaning, schedules, meetings,
jobs, and so much more.
How did we
create a world in which we have more and more and more to do with less time for
leisure, less time for reflection, less time for community, less time to
just…be? For me it’s a multitude of things. Technology, the natural pace of
society, deadlines. It seems that we have created a world in which we must have
no down time in order to feel satisfied; yet, at one point in our lives we felt
content with the simplicities that now escape that very same person.
It’s true;
life has evolved. To a certain extent, we are forced to live a life full of
actions in order to succeed or make ends meet. Our lives are full of schedules
and lists and a plethora of other occurrences. Perhaps, we must live this newly
evolved life void of mud pies and crayons. Perhaps, down time simply is ceasing
to exist. Regardless, the question remains. How are you doing?
As I sat
around the house in sweats and soaking in the boredom that my day off allowed,
I realized something. Maybe, just maybe, this question of “How are you doing?”
isn’t asking what I initially thought. Maybe, it’s instead asking “How are you…how
is your heart…how is your soul…how are you?”
Hoping your day is great,
Derek Berkshire2014-2015 Indiana FFA State Sentinel
Doing well, thanks for asking:)
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