Progress.

Remember when Sundays were actually Sundays, a real day off, and no one worked, and almost nothing was open, because it was a day off? And we were OK with it?

Remember when...

...we didn't have to work seven days a week?

...we didn't have coffee to go? We just drank it when we got where we were going, we didn't buy it in shops to carry it around, or if we did, it was the exception, not the rule?

...when we did carry coffee, it was in a Thermos, from the pot we made at home?

...we didn't have to carry water around at all times, as if we were going to die of thirst at any moment, and we had to wait til we got home if we were thirsty? If we were outside, we ran in to grab a few gulps and then go right back out again? Because it was a nice little break to take from whatever task at hand?

...we raked leaves and shoveled snow, and it was actually good exercise?

...we didn't have access to everything RIGHT NOW, and we knew how to wait?

...things weren't so convenient, so things meant more when we got them?

...we ate dinner together?

...we ate dinner at a real time? Off real plates? With real metal utensils?

...we made lunches for the week, or brought leftovers in, instead of buying stuff wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam? And we didn't eat at our desks?

...we didn't belong to gyms, because we actually got enough exercise DOING things?

I do. What do you remember? Not having/doing these things anymore is what we call "progress". Is it progress to have less time for each other, for our families? Is it progress to trash the planet? Is that progress? Is it progress to not have time to lay on a chaise lounge in the summertime under a nice shade tree with iced tea and a book? How is it progress if we are more stressed, more tired, more depressed, more poor, more fat? How is that progress?  How is it progress to work ourselves to death? Where's the enjoyment? How is it progress if we're not very happy at all? How is it progress when the pediatric wards are full of kids with cancer? Is that the price of progress? Is progress so blind that we stop caring about other people, that the elderly are forgotten and neglected and people that need help don't get any because we are too busy chasing ours?

Shouldn't progress mean we are ALL better off?

I guess not.