A quotation to contemplate today

The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist destroys the fruitfulness of her/his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

~ Thomas Merton

This was from the signature line of a Friend's email. I'm not sure that everything that is bad for us is violence. But the essence of this insight is still important.