A proverb in Ecuador states: “Everything takes longer than it does.”
If you want some breathing room, increase your margin of error.
Because progress gives us more and more of everything faster and faster, the obvious result is steadily increasing options, opportunities, and obligations. Meanwhile, we are stuck with the 24-hour day. The inevitable collision between this escalating context and a fixed time frame catapults the word No to the front of the class.
“No,” says author Anne Lamott, “is a complete sentence.” Speaking to a seminary graduation, she continued: “Believe me, we do not need hassled, bitter ministers. We don’t want you to talk the talk about this being the day the Lord hath made and that we should rejoice and savor its beauty and poignancy when secretly you’re tearing around like a white rabbit; we need you to walk the walk. And we need you to walk a little more slowly.”
Margin (loc.1949ff)
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