The Abundance In Our Lives

We are the patient-zero generation for a lot of things that were, safe to say, uncommon practices even a decade and a half ago.

When Walt Whitman said, “The future is no more uncertain than the present”, he implied that while what is to come is hard to tell.

It is equally hard to understand the consequences of our current actions.

Our bodies are not hard-wired for lifelong usage of modern affordances – mobile phones, motorised vehicles, things as simple as escalators and office chairs.

I am not begrudging the existence of these amenities. I thoroughly appreciate the advances humanity has made across energy, food security, healthcare, education etc. I will not trade these individually or in its entirety.

Sure, we can do with fewer to no tanning beds amongst other pointless human inventions, but you know the category of useful advances I am referring to.

What makes me uncomfortable is how we are using the gifts of these advancements as ‘adult pacifiers’ without being deliberate about it.

I remember asking a friend sometime ago about how long he thinks an average human spends looking for his phone in their homes or immediate vicinity over a lifetime. I am sure you would get a sense of the magnitude I am talking about regardless of your math.

The best of humanity always came through during times of deprivation and we have consistently led ourselves and others through that towards better times.

Humanity is genetically coded to thrive and innovate in such situations.

What do you think all this abundance will lead us to?

It is our responsibility to create the space to be deliberate within this abundance that we have created.

Surely, we must find a way to temper its relentlessness.