Calling a halt in that mad rush to go nowhere fast

WHILE it doesn’t happen all the time, one of the few consolations of getting older, is that the tendency to start rushing into everything, eases considerably as the ‘what’s the point’ red light starts to flash.

There are though many mornings when I’m rather starkly reminded of the impetuosity of youth, most notably in the guise of young lads driving Golfs, who seem preoccupied with touching my back bumper before darting out in a right-angled over-taking manoeuvre.

Maybe, in a past existence of more youthful years, there might have been a vestige of the overtaking bug in me, but experience has taught me that on carriageways like the Headford and Tuam roads, the time gain is negligible – a gain of car spaces is the only very dubious dividend.

I do accept that for example telling a working mother with two young kids to take it easy and not rush around is, to put it mildly, slightly presumptuous, but most of us can decide that there are a lot of very tangible gains from standing back, enjoying the moment, and not being involved in any permanent chase of a tail that you’ll never catch.

Over the years, I’ve often read up on articles that outline the basics in avoiding the ‘rush trap’ and the simplest one of all is a little, two lettered word entitled: no. Most of us have grown up in a work ethic environment where we think our status is measured by our willingness to take on a multitude of diverse tasks at any one time.

We are inclined to believe that in some way we are inferior beings if we have to look someone in the eye and say to them: “No, I can’t to that – I’ll have to pass on that one.” As we get older though, the mellowing mind does tend to be a bit choosier on how we allocate our time, given that we are gradually developing greater insights into its finite nature and that impending gong of the final bell.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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