Sometimes I look at a bouquet of flowers and think, “How beautiful...but what a waste.” But perhaps it’s this type of thinking that’s gotten me into trouble. Now that I think about it, there are a great many things in life to which I can apply this same attitude. A five minute phone call…what a waste of time. A coin in a stranger’s bucket…probably will go to waste. An evening kiss when I walk through the door…is it really necessary?? When I think about it, almost everything in life can be seen as “a waste”…of time, of money, of energy, of resources. But it is this exact train of cynicism that robs life of meaning, value…and genuine beauty. While watching the recent travels of Anthony Bourdain in the mothership of beauty, leisure, and “waste”-Paris, I discovered that this mode of thought has even infiltrated the way of life for Parisians. He was conversing with culinary artists of the new generation, and they equated current culinary trends to pop music implying that classical has phased out. With this new wave, has come the value of efficiency, speed, and a “good enough” attitude. Three hour, five course works of art, it seems, are a dying breed. So what does this mean for our global cultural climate? If even the Parisians have been lured by technology crowning efficiency as lord of the new age, what will the rest of us do? For me, it will require a countercultural approach to living….an incredible intentionality to my relationships, to my time, to my exposure to the hypnotic powers that be. I want to see a bouquet of flowers and be amazed…by each petal’s structure, by the fragrant aroma, by the farmer who planted the seed and plucked it from the field. I want to see waste in a different light. I want to connect with the process…no matter how long that may take. Otherwise, life is just wasting away.
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