When all becomes short-term

We live in a constantly evolving world, filled with fast decisions, lightning-speed action and increasing expectation for instant results. Yet, when I observe my veggie garden that I seeded very late this season as I was nursing a lumbago and waiting for winter to go away, I realize that these expectations won't ever work for my salads which – as always – take an inordinate amount of time to grow. More folks should actually grow vegetables to appreciate that reality; in the absence of wonder chemicals and other evil tricks, nature takes the time it needs to operate on most everything.

We all seem to have forgotten this “time-principle;” we screw up the world over years of wanton management and neglect, we don't carefully maintain what ought to be cared for, we would love to see our economy rebound as fast as we'd need, our environment cleaned up before we can realize it, and yet, no such magic turnaround happens that fast in real life. We only seem willing to accept what our generals proclaim about the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, in that they will take “more time” to be fully prosecuted. As we've generally lost a good sense of what time really is and forgot about the virtue of patience, gardening might be a could idea for us to reset our internal clocks in sync with world reality...