YEARS AGO DOUGLAS COUPLAND wrote about our “accelerated culture.”  Things have been speeding up for a long time, but not necessarily in the way that we expected it.

Seth Godin posted a quality blog about our sped-up life that’s worth reading a couple of times.  Titled “The decline of fascination and the rise of ennui,” Godin’s post moves from a time when movies were best-sellers for months to a time where movements and cultural moments last a few days or weeks at most.  He even uses a word that’s new to me: neophilia.

It his response to this cultural shift that I like (and I always find the diagnosis fascinating).  Instead of joining in the with the masses and adding to the cultural clutter, Godin suggests that “the real opportunity . . . is in trying to build longer arcs.”  Make good things that last.  That used to be a mark of a culture: making things that would stand time’s test and be both good and valuable.

What does that look like these days?  What are some ways we might see this working already?  How can this be good and true for churches and schools and businesses and communities?  It’s worth slowing down and thinking about.

You can read the rest of Godin’s thoughts here.