HASTINESS
Woe to the multitude of many people … and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
—Isaiah 17:12
2131 Drive-In View Of Dead
In our hasty age, this was bound to come. An Atlanta mortician has adopted the drive-in window approach for busy mourners. He is having five windows installed in an extension of his funeral home. Each window is six feet long and will contain a body in its coffin. “So many people want to come by and see the remains of a relative or friend,” said the mortician, “but they just don’t have the time. This way they can drive by and just keep on going.”
—Christian Victory
2132 Driving Fast But Aimlessly
It is said that Huxley was once on his way to a meeting of the British Association in Dublin but arrived late at the station. Hurriedly he jumped into a jauntingcar and ordered the coachman: “Drive fast! “
Away went the cab, jolting over the streets. At length Huxley inquired of the driver, “Do you know where you are going?” He answered with a grin, “No, I don’t know where we are going, but I’m driving very fast.” That’s a pretty good picture of modern man.
One of the marchers in Coxey’s army as it moved on Washington tried to explain his mission by saying, “We don’t know what we want, but we want it mighty bad, and we want it mighty quick.”
—Armin C. Oldsen
2133 Around and Around In Taxi
“Jimmie” Walker, once mayor of New York, tells the story of the drunk who climbed into a taxi and demanded, “Drive me eighteen times around Central Park.” The cab had gotten about as far as 86th Street when he banged on the window and cried, “Faster! I’m in a hurry!”
2134 Those Pioneer Days
Back in the pioneer days, if a man missed a stagecoach, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “So what? Another one will be along in a couple of weeks.” Now, if a man misses even one section of a revolving door in a bank building, he is ready to explode with impatience. We need to slow down and let our spirits catch up with our bodies. Many people are rushing around so fast that they have no time to speak to a friend, to smile, or just to stop and pat a little dog on the head. We need to slow down and live!
—Gospel Herald
2135 Caught In Own Time Trap
Time hasn’t changed a noticeable fraction of a second in ten million years. The first man who stood on two feet and watched the sunrise and had a glimmering of wonder about time knew the same span of daylight that we know today, and the same year. Grass grew as deliberately then as now, and the berry ripened in its own time.
But somewhere along the way man began to count not only the days, but the hours, the minutes, the seconds. Time was unchanged but man was caught in his own time-traps. The very echoes came to say, “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” And only now and then did anyone stop and ask, “Why, and what for?”
—New York Times
2136 Dolphin With Anchor: “Hasten Slowly”
A famous historic symbol to express moderation is the device of a dolphin twisted round an anchor. This was inscribed on his coins by Titus, the Emperor of Rome, and was meant by him to express that golden mean between hurry and delay—the failure which comes from rushing without premeditation, and hesitation through overmuch caution. The anchor is thus the symbol of delay, as it is also of firmness and security, while the dolphin is regarded as the swiftest and most mercurial of fish.
Frequently the dolphin and anchor are used as a family crest, with the explanatory motto, Festina lente, “Hasten slowly.” The symbol, therefore, fitly expresses the idea of moderation, of that just balance between two opposing forces. It represents, also, that maturity in business which is the medium between too great haste and too great hesitation.
—James Burns
2137 Too Busy
Too busy to read the Bible
Too busy to wait and pray!
Too busy to speak out kindly
To someone by the way!
Too busy to care and struggle,
To think of the life to come!
Too busy building mansions,
To plan for the Heavenly Home.
Too busy to help a brother
Who faces the winter blast!
Too busy to share his burden
When self in the balance is cast.
Too busy for all that is holy
On earth beneath the sky
Too busy to serve the Master
But—not too busy to die.
—Selected
2138 Too Busy For Taxes
He was once dean of the Harvard Law School, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and adviser to President Kennedy on reform of the Federal Regulatory Agencies. Now he faced a charge of not filing his U. S. income tax on time for the years 1956 through 1960—a period in which he earned $360,827 in gross income. The only defence that James M. Landis could make was that “he had been so engrossed with public matters that he neglected personal affairs, including taxes.”
2139 The Horse’s View
There is a little story about a picture of the famous racehorse, Man O’War. The caption on the painting said: “The fastest horse the world has ever seen.” Beneath this, some wag had penciled: “The fastest world the horse has ever seen.”
—Selected
2140 Word “Post Haste”
The word “post haste” came into usage during the reign of Henry VIII of England. Relays of horses were stationed in principal towns in England. When a letter was stamped “posthaste,” it meant “ride for thy life!” If a carrier was caught delaying on route, he was hanged!
Letters of the sixteenth century often bore a drawing of a letter carrier suspended from the gallows. Beneath the drawing occurred the words: “Haste! Post haste! Haste for thy life!”
2141 Trainman Missed Word “Extra”
Frank Plewa, 59, of Calgary, was killed in a train wreck by a misunderstanding of instructions. The order read, “Hold all westward extra trains until 13:10.” Conductor Duby said he read the order over the dispatcher’s shoulder up to the word “westward” and, assuming the next word to be “train,” rushed out to notify the “crew.” That one omitted word “extra” sealed the fate of Frank Plewa.
2142 Football’s Wrongest Run
Football’s “Wrongest Run” occurred in the 1929 Rose Bowl.
California was leading Georgia Tech 7–6 when Roy Riegels took the ball. He became confused when California players began blocking Tech men behind him. He turned and ran in that direction.
The crowd roared in amazement, “Wrong way! Wrong way!” Benny Lom, a fast Cal halfback, started after Riegels who was headed straight for the opponent’s goal. “Roy, Roy, stop!” he cried.
But the noise was so great that Riegels thought the crowd was cheering him on. Just as he reached the goal, his teammate pulled him down.
The California team tried to punt from their one-yard line. But Tech blocked the kick and pounced on the ball behind the goal. The play was scored as a two-point safety for Georgia. This proved to be Georgia Tech’s margin of victory.
2143 To The Salt Mine!
A group of Salt Lake City executives, after lunch, hailed a cab to go back to the office. As they climbed in, one exclaimed, “Well, back to the salt mine!” The cab bowled along and the executives became so engrossed in conversation that they didn’t look up until it stopped—at the entrance to the salt mine at the edge of town.
—Minneapolis Tribune
2144 No Time To Hurry
Composer Igor Stravinsky’s publisher urged him to hurry the completion of a new composition.
“Hurry!” he cried angrily. “I never hurry. I have no time to hurry.”
2145 Writing For All Time
For two years or more Haydn toiled on his grand oratorio. When friends urged him to bring his task to a close he replied: “I cannot make haste; I am writing for all time.” Each day before beginning he knelt and prayed for divine guidance as he wrote.
—Congregationalist
2146 More Pearls To Cast
Professor George Lyman Kitteredge of Harvard, the Shakespearean scholar, was once annoyed by the students noisily preparing to leave the class the moment the bell sounded.
“Just a minute, gentlemen,” he said, “I have a few more pearls to cast.”
2147 Not Yet Louis XIV!
When Louis XIII, King of France, was on his deathbed, he ordered that his young son be brought to him. When the child arrived, the dying father asked:
“What’s your name?”
“Louis XIV,” was the reply.
“Not yet,” snapped the King.
2148 Epigram On Hastiness
• People sometimes forget that a rat race can be won only by a rat.
—Paul Palmer
See also: Recklessness ; Speed ; Luke 17:28.