“Instant” is an illusion

The first thing I realized when I started growing vegetables was – this takes time! Once you plant the seeds, the next step is “wait.” It’s not as though you are waiting and doing nothing. The vegetables need some support - managing the temperature of the greenhouse, making sure the seeds are protected from cold, watering them when there isn’t enough rain – but, in the end, all you can do is quietly watch over them and wait. It takes several days for the seeds to sprout, and once they sprout, several weeks for them to grow into plants, and then several months before you can harvest. This takes patience! It is completely different from going to the supermarket, buying some vegetables and eating them that day.

Or so I thought. But, wait a minute. Even vegetables from the supermarket started out as seeds and took time to grow. It’s just that I didn’t watch it happen. It’s the same for other things. Meat, fish, various processed foods and frozen foods, all of them took months to reach a certain place in a certain form. It is an illusion to think that we can acquire something immediately. The reality is that everything has a process. Things don’t just appear. For plants, and animals, and human development, there is a growing process. For songs to be written and composed, or movies filmed, or paintings painted, or things designed, there is a creative process. There is a building process, a manufacturing process, a marketing process. Etc., etc. Even instant ramen takes time to be made. However, as consumers, we only see the finished product.

Now, as long as you have the internet and a credit card, you can get anything and everything at the click of a button. Without going anywhere or doing anything, in a second, you can consume music and comics and movies. Almost any material goods can be delivered to you by the next day. No waiting necessary. Thanks to the efforts of others, things reach us only after the production process is finished. It is not that the process no longer exists. It is just that the process is hidden from us.

Let’s set aside the ethics of production and human resource management for now and think instead about what the illusion of “instant” has had on our psychology. Have we not become impatient and hurried people? Do we not expect that growth and learning, freedom and healing in our hearts, and development and satisfaction in our relationships should come instantly? We want to skip the process and get those skills now. We want to reach a certain level now. We want to have a good relationship with that person now. But these are not the kinds of things that can be obtained by the click of a button. You can’t buy them with money. They require effort and patience. But, being deceived by the illusion of instant acquisition has made us lazy. If we cannot obtain something immediately, we give up. It’s too hard to learn something new. Relationships with other people are too troublesome. Please don’t ask me to look inward and face myself. I’d rather just be a consumer. But, can such a way of life really bring happiness?

I picture my husband’s face as he told me last week, “Our cabbage and broccoli have sprouted!” His expression was full of joy. His eyes were shining. It was an expression I would never see on his face putting cabbage and broccoli into our cart at the supermarket and approaching the check out. Why? They just sprouted. There’s nothing to eat yet. But the fact that he planted the seeds himself, watched over them with care, and waited with expectation, the fact that there was no instant result, or even a guarantee of any result, birthed joy in him. Perhaps it is taking part in the process, putting in effort and patience, that makes us feel alive. Thank you, vegetables, for making me aware that “instant” is an illusion. I want to continue to enjoy the process with you.