The Need for Speed

Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go, go, go.

The last couple of Sundays I have been out of my house just after 7. I’d love to tell you a great story about an adventure. Maybe, I met friends and we went fishing and talked about life and stuff. Well, besides the fact that this sounds like a sappy beer commercial, and I don’t like fishing, it’s not true. I could tell you that I had to be out early because I am training for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. That would be a lie too: the only way I will get there is if I buy a ticket.

I WONT BE THERE

I WONT BE THERE

No, the reason for my early ventures into the day was to partake in that chore I have mentioned in the past: food shopping (https://larrydbernstein.com/food-shopping-shopping-shopping/ & https://larrydbernstein.com/contribution-to-greatness/). As you can imagine, I had the roads nearly to myself on Sunday morning. Part of my trip (about 2 miles) to the supermarket includes a highway where the speed limit is 50. How could anyone expect me to go at that speed? I wanted to turn it up. You know what I mean. You have your favorite driving song on – “Running Down a Dream” by Tom Petty or “Radar Love” by Golden Earring or “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane (or nearly anything by Bruce if you are like me) – and an empty road. Now, I ask you again, could I really go just 50 mph? No way!

When I was 23, I accompanied my aunt down to Charlotte, North Carolina. My aunt, who was in her 50s at the time, was going to Charlotte to attending a three-day racecar camp. Anyway, to quote Tom Cruise or Maverick in Top Gun, you could say my aunt felt, “the need, the need for speed.” As part of the camp, she got to drive around the track in a racecar at unbelievably high speeds. After the two days of training, she did one lap and got scared. It was too much speed.

Courtesy of Google.com

Courtesy of Google.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O1ZhHts8MI

Back to my shopping trip: When I got to Shop Rite – in record time, mind you – it came to my mind just how much of a rush I am always in. I am perpetually in “the need, the need for speed” mode.  My odometer is always burning high whether I am zooming down an empty road, briskly walking up the block, or pushing my boys to “Hurry up! Let’s go!”  I wondered, “Why am I always rushing?”

Not everything is an open road. Sometimes, I need to stop and smell the proverbial roses. The food will get to the shelf, the boys will get to school, but the moments I zip by will surely be gone.

35 thoughts on “The Need for Speed

  1. you are so right! Take time to laugh hard with your kids, go goof off with the fam. Take a nap from time to time (in this day and age, it is challenging, huh?) BTW, you had me for about 2 seconds on the Olympics thing.

  2. You’re so right, sometimes I try to do everything at half the speed as what I normally do for a day, it’s quite difficult at first because you have to call yourself back constantly, but when you get the hang of it, it is so relaxing.

  3. I too feel too often the need to rush and need to slow myself down.
    Life’s too short to wear myself out like this! And you shouldn’t do it at all, with the kids. Enjoy every minute with them – the full length of the minute, since one day you might wake up and realize you rushed through their childhood.
    Good Luck Larry!

    • Very true. Sometimes, it feels as speed is the only way as there is so much I want to get done. Know what I mean?

  4. Let me get this straight–you rushed out of your house that early on a SUNDAY for GROCERIES? You need to cut back on the coffee, my friend. But we were in NJ a few years ago, and I think you and all your fellow Jersey-ites share the same love for speed. Don’t be too hard on yourself. 🙂

  5. Hi,

    I like this because your last sentence says it all, “but the moments I zip by will surely be gone.” Sometimes I forget to slow down and just admire nature. It has a calming effect.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    Shalom,
    Pat

  6. my mom’s theme song is an old Alabama tune “I’m in a hurry and don’t know why”, and it fits her to a tee. And, while I get the stop and smell the roses philosophy, I’m not sure I want to slow down. Unless it is planned slower time, like time together with family and friends, or an adventure, then I want to go fast. I want get there, I want to feel the wind in my hair as I’m flying down the highway. I don’t see anything wrong with hurry up and get there. Life is meant to be lived, and if I have to drive fast and not slow down for speed bumps then it just means I get to have time to enjoy what I want! You don’t have to slow down, that moments that you zip by are still there!! You just enjoyed them at the speed you wanted too! I think that you only want to slow down cause it’s what society tells us we should be doing. Oh, slow down you are missing things (No, we are not) Stop and smell the roses (yeah, I can do that in passing and still really enjoy them). Blink and the kids are grown up (Yeah, that’s happening whether you go fast or you go slow) You are still building memories, and I’ve never heard someone say, “It took the kids forever to grown up, I went slow and had so much time with them.”
    UGH. Go fast! Faster!

    • If you just mean the traveling place A to place B then yes, I also want to go quickly though meandering sometimes can be pleasant.
      In terms of life in general, I think the rush, rush attitude can be too much. I hear what you are saying but sometimes the rush sucks the joy out of things and be stressful. I do want to accomplish and love to get things done but at what cost. I suppose I understand what you mean but I am not sure it is where I am.

      • LOL. That’s the nice thing about life, we are all at different places! It keeps things interesting! I’ll still always encourage everyone to go faster… and I’ll get my fair share of speeding tickets!

  7. I am constantly racing through everything too! I always have about 100 things I want to accomplish everyday so I feel like I can only allot myself 10 minutes to every activity (even then I can’t accomplish my 100 things)! I’m usually in constant motion. It’s definitely an internal struggle I deal with. However, I really don’t enjoy grocery shopping so I think I would rush through that even if I do learn how to relax a bit!

    • It’s funny I don’t mind grocery shopping. like getting things on my list, staying within budget and moving rapidly through the store.

  8. I feel you. I force myself to stop and smell the roses every now and then. Especially when it involves my kids. I always feel I am not giving them the undivided attention they need. I am always multitasking. Whenever I sit down with them (really sit down with them, without doing anything else), even if it means half an hour a day, it transforms them into different kids. Its like recharging their batteries (and mine included).
    On another note I actually enjoy grocery shopping.

    • I know so many of us feel the same way. I do think that it is almost the way of the world today.
      In regards to food shopping – I don’t mind it either.

  9. I used to be like that, always in a rush. My health over the last few years has forced me to slow considerably. And you know what? The slower life isn’t that bad. Except when I’m driving on an empty stretch of back road. Then I like to see how fast I can go before my mini-van starts to shudder (150km/hr is the limit so far).

  10. Totally agree with this one! What I find interesting is when my body starts moving slow (like this past weekend after spending two days at that conference) and I’m fighting it. I can feel myself moving in slow motion but my brain thinks I should be moving faster. Usually I take that as a sign to slow down. It’s interesting how you don’t find that feeling from Shabbat on a Friday night to carry over into the weekend.

    • It does carry over a bit and it is great. However, the carry over last only so long. I also long for it to come back around the next week.

  11. I’m the same way. I never want to be wasting time, but what’s the rush? And I would totally be speeding, especially if a good song was on.

  12. You couldn’t be more right, I do the exact same thing. I use speed limits as guidelines essentially not as rules I need to abide by. I like to plan everything and get there and get it done. To quote vaguely from The Croods, which I saw this weekend, “That was not living, that was not dying, that’s a difference.”

  13. This was often a big problem for me, too. Always in a rush. But since I’ve been taking some time off to write, I notice I’ve been better at this. But I still have room for improvement. 🙂

    • It’s good that you have improved on this as you have taken the time to write. I hope it helps lead you to your writing goals.

  14. You are right…and I do the same thing. Always thinking, if can get this or that done, I can relax. But I either never get done, or if I do, I find other things that I must do. I have to remind myself that one day my kids will be out of the house and I’ll have all the time in the world to organize my closets.

    Do you do most of the cooking? I figure the one who does the food shopping is the one who cooks.

  15. Like you, I’m always on the rush to get things done around here, I have endless lists but like you I enjoy food shopping! I don’t rush while food shopping 😉 I need to relax a bit in everything else but I can’t!

    • I hope you saw my public thanks. I am really happy to have the like button.
      I think it is the nature of the times – the rushing that is.

      • 🙂 yes! of course! thanks Larry! sorry I’m behind all my e-mails (too busy around here!) hope you are having a great weekend with your family! 🙂

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