(NOTE: Based on today’s The Daily Post writing prompt)

What’s truly urgent in your life? What actually demonstrates a need to be addressed immediately, without delay?

We all treat the messages that come in via our various devices as if they’re urgent enough to demand our full and undivided attention, but the beeps and pings that emanate from them rarely, if ever, convey anything actually urgent. “Urgent” is a label we throw on emails about unimportant topics in order to elevate ourselves over the recipients, as if our issue deserves more of their attention than it actually should.

I’m as guilty of this as any other corporate drone. I think everyone should drop what they’re doing and address my issue while rolling my eyes at the ridiculous items sent to me that are supposed to be worth my time.

Urgency is rarely universally accepted, I find. It’s very much in the eye of the beholder, especially with what slapped with that label today. If there were a definition we could all agree to it would almost certainly involve our environment – not just things like climate change but the state of our dwellings and shelters – and our children. Strip away the artifice and veneer of the rest of life’s little issues and that’s what’s urgent. When something is happening with one of those two categories, that’s the moment you drop everything and run, Barry, run as fast as you can.