A few weeks ago I attended a lecture which I would describe as a bit of a continuing
education update that I would call global sociology 2024. The context of the lecture was the
state of ‘The Church’ (all of them) in an increasingly secular world which has little time for
traditional religious institutions.
During the lecture, the speaker dropped a single sentence that changed the context and
meaning from a church dude lamenting the difficulty of keeping people in church, to
somewhere between a wise spiritual leader teaching a lesson on a mountaintop, and a
professor giving a seminar on mental health to a graduating psychiatry class. It was that
relevant, and that true.
The paragraph around the sentence was all about the ways that people in North
American ‘middle class’ culture prioritize their commitments, what concerns and challenges
they struggle with, and how all of that changes with each generation.
And then he said, “The current age is characterized by chaos and acceleration.” Just
pause and let that sink in. Chaos, speeding up. That’s not good. I’m not going to spend a lot of
time considering what “chaos” might mean. The Merriam Webster defines ‘chaos’ as ‘confusion
and disorder. Random and unpredictable.” Those are good definitions of chaos. What makes
this statement upsetting is the second characteristic of the current age: acceleration.
Have you experienced the feeling that everything is speeding up? That you don’t have
time to do the things you want to do? One minute you have plenty of time before a deadline
for work or school or social responsibilities like getting taxes done, and the next minute the
deadline is tomorrow, or yesterday. If you have felt this one or two times, that’s just because
you got too busy. But if you feel this feeling quite often, that may be a symptom of time
urgency.
Time Urgency is a specific type of stress related to burnout and work stress. People who
experience time urgency report the following symptoms: always feeling in a hurry, never
enough time to complete tasks, too much to do, pressure, no time for breaks or self care, often
working on days off or after hours just to catch up, anxiety, poor sleep, and more… Time
urgency is usually imposed by the culture of the work environment, and more globally can be
experienced outside of work by an overcrowded or poorly organized personal schedule.
Another thing that leads to acceleration is abundance. In 2024 there is more to do than
there was in the past. There are more streaming networks to watch, more social media to check
on, more bots spamming email to clean out, more music lessons, hockey games, soccer
practice, dance class, cooking class, and sewing classes to attend. Many people work two or
more jobs, and there are way too many choices to consider if we just want a quick vacation.
There is also a downside of abundance: the bills you have to pay, the sleep you lose to
doom scrolling, the garbage that has to be sorted into recycle vs landfill. And speaking of landfill,
the entire ecosystem’s headed for Hell in a handbasket.
Which leads to a third cause for acceleration: overexposure to headlines and sensational
news. In our culture news used to be something you saw once each day for up to an hour. Now,
news is constantly being updated. A volcano can explode on the other side of the world and we
can login and watch it happening live. Natural disasters, wars, political speeches, science news
about the climate crisis, etc. News that causes us to have too much cortisol and adrenaline is
available at all times.
Time (work stress) urgency, life abundance, and overexposure to news are all reasons
why we as a culture are experiencing acceleration. Social media and mass media also normalize
and even glamourize busyness by showing idealized short clips of fictional characters or
influencers talking about how busy they are, how hard they work, and how tired they always
feel. And there’s just too much of it.
Take a breath.
If you are a member of the Christian faith, you have probably heard the scripture from
Matthew chapter 6 in which Jesus says to his friends, “That is why I tell you not to worry about
everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life
more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or
harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more
valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” This is a
short part of a much longer passage where Jesus is encouraging his friends to let go of their
worries for tomorrow, and their larger concerns about money, and focus on living today.
In the Buddhist faith, bodhisattva teachers encourage their pupils to meditate and
practice mindfulness, which is to intentionally focus thought on the present moment, without
judgement, and to accept what is. Pupils are taught to reflect on the day, and to live only in the
present moment. A tip that they teach for anxiety is to practice the 333 rule. Take 3 deep
breaths, name 3 things you can see, name 3 sounds you can hear.
Other faith groups have different ways of addressing acceleration, but they all include
some manner of bringing the mind back to the present moment. In this moment, there is no
chaos, there is only yourself and the air you are breathing. In this moment, there is no
yesterday, or tomorrow, only now. May your moment be filled with peace. In that peace, may
you meet God and know that you are loved.
Rev. Sula Anne Kosacky
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