Please Wait...
A
Lesson
In
Modern
Inconvenience
Please Wait... A
Lesson
In
Modern
Inconvenience.
by Louise Byng
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.� - Mahatma Gandhi
Foreword I am a big believer in waiting. I have always waited until Christmas morning to open my presents, despite my cousins urging me to rip off a small square of paper from each parcel to find out what was inside early. I wait 2 weeks to have my camera film processed - just the right amount of time to forget specific photographs and so relive those moments anew. I give up something for lent every year, and wait longingly yet patiently to have it once more, 47 days later. The waiting makes it sweeter. Yet with the ever-increasing speed of modern living, what place does waiting have? As technology progresses so do our demands. Waiting for an internet page to load can feel unacceptable; we are frustrated with technology that keeps us waiting despite it being the fastest it’s ever been. We are promised instantaneous exchanges with cash points and self-service machines yet still have to wait to withdraw money, buy food, send parcels, to see a doctor because other people are doing those things too. Now recipients have the means to reply to our messages right away through e-mail and mobile phones we may be dismayed to find that they, in fact, haven’t. The distance between what we want and when we can get it has also dramatically decreased making us more annoyed when we can’t get something the moment we desire it. Convenience is the name of the game with many supermarkets open 24 hours and on our doorstep, training us against the mentality of planning ahead or choosing the best produce from a butcher or baker. Train stations and airports resemble malls, cashing in on our desire to consume through boredom, and the implanted feeling of ‘needs’ to be satisfied purely because they can. The acceleration of our pace of life has made us detest waiting, rendering it merely an obstacle in the way of progress. I see these waiting moments as exquisite pauses; a moment of serenity where nothing is demanded of us - we are free to think and to exist. They should not be wished away or drowned in consumption. If we continue to refuse to embrace these transitional moments we risk losing touch with ourselves, speeding through life without room to appreciate it. The ability to wait is a nod to the over arching value of patience for the course of our lives as a whole. Pascal said “complete rest is death”, but in a relentless life there is surely no time to live. Waiting can be our solace, our next idea, our rest; everything that we are rushing around trying to achieve.
Do Not Cross
Wait Your Turn
Half Time
Self Service
Fast Food
Waiting For Customers
Quantity Not Quality
Speed Not Substance
Family Time
On Demand
Time Cannot Be Killed,
Even By Technology
Travelling Without Moving
Awaiting Instruction
Due
Scenes of suspended motion in a culture that never stops.