What Have We Become?

The Paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get too tired, read too little, watch too much TV, 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 have been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We 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 conquered 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 build more computers to store more information, to produce more copies then ever, but we communicate less and less.These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway 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 room window and nothing in the stock room. A time when technology can bring you this letter and a time when you can choose either to share this insight or just hit delete.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breaths away.

Written by George Carlin