Speed Up. Nah, Slow down...

When I first arrived in my section at Alderman Ave. Bokhandle, there were five people present: a teenage boy, named Danny, a lone teenage girl, named Cassava, a middle aged woman, Josephine,, and two chit-chatting teenage girls, Maddy and Casey. By the time about twenty minutes at the most had past, all but the two teenage girls had quickly packed up there things and left. Later another older middle-aged woman came and sat where the previous one had, and she too was gone in about 10 minutes. Most of the time, I find, when I visit Alderman, people rarely stay there for as long as I do. People usually come, alone (or if they are teenagers, the exact opposite), do their quick business (often on their tablets or laptop computers) and just as quickly leave. They seem to take no interest in exhausting the store’s resources to their fullest (save Bean and Brew; but then again, doesn’t everybody at least like Bean and Brew), and are content, for one, only going there during the week unless some special event is being held, and spending a fairly minute amount of time at the store. Actually, truth be told, I find that very few people even come to my section to sit down (even if it is for a brief moment) and get at least somewhat comfortable before moving along to whatever business they have to accomplish.
     The store itself, perhaps, could be billed as somewhat responsible for this. I mean, rarely do I ever see employees out and about aiding customers and thus encouraging a repeat visit. Although it is true that most visitors to the store rarely go up to the second floor at all (let alone with the intention of staying awhile). Truth be told, I’m not even sure if most customers are aware of the comfort area on the second floor.
     The bigger culprit, however, is probably the socio-culture notion that many Americans seem to posses that life must be lived full to the brim with things to do and/or in the fast lane, or you’re not doing something right and are thus doomed to a life of less success (at least in comparison to someone who does adhere to these societal notions/standards). Perhaps more so than almost any other culture, Americans either remove completely from our lives many forms of relaxation (a siesta? Forget it), or denote those activities to vacation or weekends only. And while yes, in many cases this denotation is essential to maintain, but a lot of the time, I believe, we feel pressured to live lives such as this, and eventually many people burn out, or go through some kind of (albeit often brief) rebellion in search of some kind of fun, or rest, or even a simple break.
     But why let it get that far? In many cases, a small breakdown has become a societal norm (a.k.a. the phenomenon that is the midlife crisis), but that doesn’t make it healthy. As a matter of fact, stress is often more lethal than many car accidents or a poor diet. Perhaps a slower pace needs to be implemented more in the American way of life. Although many people may fear that if we slow down, other nations will discover something we haven’t, or in some other way usurp us as a world superpower. Simply put, this isn’t true. Many nations work hard during the allotted time for it, and rest, relax, and unwind in the allotted time for those activities as well, because they recognize one crucial thing: that there is an allotted time for those things as well. And they still manage to maintain their powerful global ranking (e.g. Japan, Britain, France).