While checking out a new bluegrass band today (the mammals) I came across a song they had written music for and then pulled a couple of different excerpts from essays to be read over the music by several different speakers. This one really struck a chord with me. I think I've read things similar to it before- or maybe I've read this one in particular before- either way today it resonated so I'm putting it here.

The paradox of our time in history
Is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers
We have wider freeways but narrower viewpoints
We spend more but we have less
We buy more but we enjoy it less

We have bigger houses and smaller families
More conveniences and less time
We have more degrees but less depth
More knowledge but less judgment
More experts but more problems
More medicine but less wellness

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly,
Laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly,
Stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom,
Watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
We've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less;
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait;
We have higher incomes, but lower morals;
We have more food, but less appeasement;
We build more computers to hold more information
to produce more copies than ever,
But have less communication;
We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;
Tall men, and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers,
Throw away morality, one-night stands,
Overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology has brought this letter to you,
And a time when you can choose either to make a difference,
Or to just hit "Skip Ahead"...

~B. Mooreland

How sad that for a great deal of the population, this could be their personal theme song. I hope I never get to that point. The point where what I own is more important that what I've seen, that how much I make at work is more important than how much I love what I do, that my relationships are overshadowed by always wanting more, needing more, than the simple fact that I'm loved by Him and I can experience that more every day by looking for Him. He's poured himself into me, and every day I'm blessed by the friendships that reveal Him to me that much like His love, I can never fully understand or deserve.