Well, we have a new leader over here in the United Kingdom. In what seems like only minutes ago, and the er, fourth (I think) we’ve had in ten years. The corporation running the county changes the CEO more frequently than a West Coast Startup. But it’s ok, because now we only ever need to live (or lead, come to that) in the ‘moment’.

Time spent (i.e. more than three seconds and then the thumb-flick) enjoying something (or better still enjoying doing something) used to be a big part of its value to us. Guilty as charged here. Crafts take time to acquire (unless you’re buying yours as you exit via the gift shop at the National Trust. Which feels a bit like a metaphor for living here right now.) 

The things we made we used to value, because they were meant to last, at least for a short while. Nothing’s worth a New York minute now. Need an illustration? Give me a moment. “/imagine”…

Even dear J Lewis is abandoning the principle that some things are nicer, so they might be a bit more expensive (but no more so than anywhere else!) because they were meant to be savoured and used time and again, for a quick! Use this! Then. Move On. 

The momentum of momentariness seems unescapable. If you’re not speeding to the Next Thing, you’re basically commercial toast. One minute you’re WeWorking, the next Flowing to a new business model (a home-work-lease-investment-return-plan-nestegg, maybe. I couldn’t say. I’m over that. I’m now remote working on a home-studio tandem powered by a dynamo.)

Flickering attention spans are really not helping anyone, are they? The instantivity (another new verb, possibly) of things makes for a broken relationship with the actual world in exchange for smaller and smaller tokens of a thing cut down too moments.  

Living in the moment (I gather. I’m old, so I have no idea what any of this stuff actually is, physically, virtually, non-fungibly or otherwise) is not needing to worry about ‘what just happened’ nor what might be around the corner. Fine. There’s really no need to regret anything or think too carefully about all that stuff. 

Someone will have changed your mind for you in a moment anyway.

PS I had no clue that a ‘moment’ is actually a physical measurement – it’s the turning effect of a force around a fixed point. How apposite.