Patience. It’s that thing that has been taught to grasshoppers all over the place by many Zen masters. Patience keeps us tempered and reasonably sane in situations that are long and drawn out. In the age of the Internet(s), though, patience is something that, like a grasshopper, is sucked into the slashing vortex of a lawnmower and spit out in a bajillion lifeless chunks. With the proliferation of broadband, our patience drops further. Who doesn’t notice when the Internet is running ever so slightly slower than it should? Technology has enabled the ultimate instant-gratification culture. If we want it now, there’s a good chance we can get it now. Like for example, I saw torrents of The End Begins, Tantric’s new album, out and about last night. If I wanted to, I could have downloaded them right there and then and had it before I was supposed to. I did wait for the iTunes release the next day, which had some bonus tracks, and I had those within five minutes of my purchase. It’s utterly amazing that just a few years ago I would have made a trek to Best Buy or some other record store and picked up the actual physical CD, had to fight through the wrapping of said CD, and finally find a player for it.

This is the thing about this whole instant-gratification thing, though — it seems like it’s spilling over into other portions of our lives, portions of our lives that have no business being instantly gratified. Continue reading →