Slow Down, Think, and Reflect

Today’s tools of communication encourage us to move faster and faster. The options are growing. Within moments you can text, tweet, post on Instagram, and comment on Facebook. Maybe like me, you’re addicted to the speed they represent. These communication channels, however, discourage things like thinking, reflecting, and calmly responding. What they encourage is the need many of us seem to have which is to get our opinion out there in public, to get it out there now! We can’t hold back. The technology at our fingertips encourages us to be in hurry-up mode. But, when we’re in a hurry, we often miss what’s important. Live in hurry-up mode too much of the time and you can easily burn through a decade or two and find yourself wondering, “How did I get where I am today?”

But teaching our children to slow down, to think, to reflect, to and to calmly respond will help them be more aware of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

Today’s communication technology isn’t going away. Neither is the speed at which most of us live. Pretending technology doesn’t exist or simply not using it doesn’t seem like a reasonable option. So, teaching your children to avoid living by impulse and in reaction mode will require you, yourself, to think, reflect, and be intentional with your home schooling and with your life. Resist going lock step through your curriculum. Resist going on auto pilot. Now is not the time to go to sleep.

When it comes to pop culture music, often embedded in the lyrics of songs written and released decades ago were messages that pointed out the danger of moving through life hurriedly, day after day, without thoughtfulness and reflection.  

The song, Once in A Lifetime, was recorded in 1980 by the Talking Heads. Consider these lyrics:

And you may find yourself/ Living in a shotgun shack

And you may find yourself/ In another part of the world

And you may find yourself/ Behind the wheel of a large automobile

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house/ With a beautiful wife

And you may ask yourself, well/ How did I get here?”

In an interview, David Byrne, one of the vocalists said: “’We’re largely unconscious,’ ‘You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, “How did I get here?”’”

Or, consider another song, Cats in the Cradle recorded in 1974 by Harry Chapin says something similar:

I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away

I called him up just the other day

I said, I’d like to see you if you don’t mind

He said, I’d love to, dad, if I could find the time

You see, my new job’s a hassle, and the kids have the flu

But it’s sure nice talking to you, dad

It’s been sure nice talking to you

And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me

He’d grown up just like me

My boy was just like me

Slow down so you can think and reflect and teach your children to do the same.

That’s the tip of the week!

Thanks for reading,

Curt Bumcrot, MRE
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