"Transactional?"

Are we now relational day traders?

I notice there is an increasingly transactional aspect to social and interpersonal exchanges. I find myself in conversations with people that appear to be disconnected from, say, what we might have discussed yesterday. This strikes me as different than what I experienced decades ago.

Memories seem shorter as well. I resist articulating the question, “Remember what we talked about yesterday?”

Maybe it’s partly attributable to culturally induced ADHD. (Would speed dating be one example?)

A presumptive political candidate seems to be willing to ignore or forget about 80 years of historical context regarding our efforts with Europe. It’s as if it never happened.

Call me old school if you wish. Friendships and relationships were believed to grow stronger by enduring sustained efforts through inevitable ups and downs. As one smart supervisor once said to me, “Who is the person you’d want with you in a foxhole?”

So why the picture of the famous fable at the top? The tortoise understood his relationship with the race. He knew about commitment to a sustained effort for the longer term. Enough said.