“Sharing a Room with Sparrows” interestingly focuses on time. I think it is especially interesting how Taneja noticed the switch between present, past tense, and future subjunctive, which is an really interesting perspective. I also have mixed feelings about the pandemic. Whenever I live, whether in China or in the US, but China especially, I have a strong sense of how people want to do everything “fast”: people want fast train, fast internet speed, fast production, fast food delivery. I feel rushed living in such a society that I always wish that my life could slow down. I have also thought about the fact that certain issues are not being taken seriously because people are living such a fast life. I spent my high school in Virginia and was taught to think about various global and societal issues. However, whenever I talk to my friends in China, none of them really consider issues besides little things that are related to their lives. I have wondered why and I came to the conclusion that people in China are so busy just “surviving” through the competition: students are trying to get into good college, graduates are trying to get a good job and reside in a big city, parents are busy giving their children the best education, etc. No one have the time to think about human rights, climate change, and economic crisis. I always thought that this problem only exists in China because of the large population and inevitable competition. However, it is not until I read this reading that I realized this problem possibly exists in every country. Why is this society developing so fast that sometimes it seems so coldblooded and so distant? Can we slow it down? Are you also tired of being in the never-settling current?