La Voz de Galicia – October 5, 2025 →
“Fast to put on”, the ad said. And I would think about the hurry each person might have when putting on their shoes, about the difference between taking thirty seconds or two minutes to get a pair of trainers on. And how curious it is that they use haste as a selling point for everyday footwear. Every time I walked past that brand’s shop window, I found myself thinking about how much time I spend each day putting on or taking off my shoes, and how much time I’d save with those sneakers.
Time is a very complex thing. In the age of the attention economy, in an era when everything is designed to make us waste time watching absurd, violent, or ridiculous things on our phones, hurry is (perhaps more than ever) a very important part of how we understand life. Sometimes I even think that if I’m not in a hurry, it’s because I’m not doing anything, and then I feel guilty for not being busy, and I declare myself to be in a rush to do something, even if it’s cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, cutting my toenails, or replying to that message I’ve left unanswered for a month.
In recent years I decided I was going to try to live without hurry. After all, it makes no sense to run so fast to nowhere. But it’s curious, because however hard one tries, however disciplined one is in avoiding it, hurry sticks: it’s contagious. And that email that, according to the sender, can’t wait, or that message that needs an answer right away, makes you wonder whether it’s worth fighting it, when everything around you pushes you toward it.
Hurry to put on shoes. To grab the phone. To put it down. To sleep. To not sleep. To get up. Hurry, hurry, hurry. And all for what? To arrive sooner…Where?”
