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One woman tells how she sought to convince her continually harried friend that she needed to find ways to relax. So she gave her a videotape on stress management and relaxation techniques and encouraged her to watch it right away.

HURRY SICKNESS

One woman tells how she sought to convince her continually harried friend that she needed to find ways to relax. So she gave her a videotape on stress management and relaxation techniques and encouraged her to watch it right away.

Fifteen minutes later, her friend handed back the tape. "It was good," she said, "but I don't need it."

"But it's a 70-minute video," the woman replied. "You couldn't have watched the whole thing."

"Yes, I did," her friend assured her. "I put it on fast-forward."

A major social problem of the 21st Century is Hurry Sickness. We hurry through work by "multi-tasking." We gulp down fast food. We shop at convenience stores. We lament that we haven't enough time. We race through the days and weeks until one day we look back in amazement and comment, "My, how the years flew by."

Or until we hit a "speed bump" -- like illness -- that stops us cold. Then we realize the heavy toll we paid to travel the express lane.

Hurry Sickness. Its symptoms include stress and anxiety, ailing relationships, lowered work performance, and numerous physical maladies. Some people don't survive it.

What is the cure? "For fast-acting relief try slowing down," quipped comedian Lily Tomlin. But then, perhaps that's not so funny. Slow down and live, for life is too short to be lived fast, and too precious not to be lived well.

"I have no time to be in a hurry," said John Wesley.

I agree.

Slow down and live. It's a guaranteed remedy for Hurry Sickness.