Next!

I remember when there used to be a line for each teller. Now there's not even a single line at some grocery stores when they have the self-checkout lanes. Airports, movie theaters, baseball stadium ticket windows - pretty much everywhere has started using the one-line approach, which makes all the people at the windows have to shout "Next!" when they get done with a customer.

It's ironic that such a common and necessary word in work like that also seems to be they cry of our hearts in this generation. Those of you who are at least mid-20s may remember hours and hours spent on Nintendo, with the little pixelated Mario and his giant head that was big enough to break bricks or Contra, in which these two super-tough Marines shot bubbles out of their guns. Then there was Sega and SNes, Playstation, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, PS3, and Wii (along with probably half a dozen others that I'm forgetting). Every generation is a massive improvement on the previous one.

Same with computers, cell phones, and, to a lesser extent, cars. We always want what's next, the latest and therefore, the greatest.

With electronics, it's fine. But we do that with almost everything. We get out of a relationship and we focus on who's next more than why that one fell apart. We lose a job and get the next one rather than ask what we really want to be doing 10 years from now. We go out to a party and then the very next night get bored because there's nothing to do. We're always on the lookout for that next thrill or high, even if it's not an improvement over where we just were. Few people seem to be willing to sit back and really think about what is going to make them happy long-term.

I get into that mode more often than I'd like to admit. What am I thinking? I'm thinking, "What do I want to do right now?" or "I'll never have what I really want, so I might as well get what I can." Almost always one of those two thoughts. So short-sighted.

There's a story of a little boy walking around Paris when they were building the Notre Dame Cathedral. He asked one worker what he was doing. The man replied, "I'm earning a living." He asked a second man, who answered, "I'm laying bricks." He asked a third man and heard, "I'm building a cathedral." Three men, all doing the same thing, but with three very different perspectives.

What is our perspective when we go about our days? Are we just making a living? Are we simply doing what we happen to be doing? Or are we building something that will last and impact other people? Are we looking for the next thrill or our life's purpose?