Saturday, March 18, 2006
S-L-O-W down
I am impressed this month by how much we run. I am reminded of the saying “even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat!” With cell phones, car phones, land lines, wireless computers and email, VOIP and more… Watching family and friends running all the time with “I don’t have time, I don’t have time” always on their lips makes me think of a poem I had to memorize as a child, along with many other nineteenth century lines.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind (The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson 1859-1907)
There is a movement to S-L-O-W down. I’m not just saying this because I’m nearing my dotage. I’m finding it alright to slow down once in awhile, to stop and think, remember friends, write a friendly email to family to let them know I am thinking of them, pick up the phone to call. It only takes a minute but it has rich rewards and positive consequences both for our own hearts (physical and emotional) and to those we reach out to. Try it.
It Italy, Carlo Petrini started the Slow Food movement in 1986. That was when Sheila was ten and Natala turned twelve and I was still picking up and dropping off and waiting in cars for programs to end. Then I went back to work a few years later, after a divorce and moving house and moving again. I’m still sorting my books. The concept of small bytes of time is one that I’m just starting to comprehend. Fifteen minutes to check email, a half hour of AM/PM Stretch yoga, a 45 minute walk with Brizzie, a home cooked meal. Slow is having lunch at the Madras Cafe where all the food is vegetarian and made from scratch and the garam chai awakens your senses for the rest of the day. Or, eating fish curry to improve brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNFs), too Science News, March 4, 2006 p. 136.
A "movement in which some people choose to deliberately preserve and cultivate the values they consider threatened by the insistence on doing everything ever more quickly" is the Slow Cities movement. Aptly, its logo is the snail.
Hersbruck in lower Bavaria is a Slow City in Germany. The market town of Aylsham in Norfolk,England (where my grandfather joined the Norfolk Rifles before WWI) has joined Slow Cities. Brtonigla in Croatia. More than 30 small Italian provincial towns including Greve in Chianti, Orvieto, Bra and Positano. The University of Urbino is the movement's official think-tank.
There are Slow travel tours but they seem more like the movie:If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), which I loved. Don’t rush this tour, you’ll miss the point. No car alarms, no loud noises, organic food, yes, wireless is okay. It’s the best of both worlds.
This is not about watching the paint dry on the wall or arguing about two flies climbing it. This is about living a rich life and knowing it, being aware of it, participating in it without becoming a sanyasi or an ascetic. Just say NO to fast food. Try observing a Sabbath, if not every week, maybe once a month. A book about the movement by Carl Honore is In Praise of Slow Unfortunately, the American press translated the title as In Praise of Slowness.
S-L-O-W is not about saying no to innovation and new ideas. Just put on the brakes, don’t raise your child to be an over-scheduled hothouse flower. Remember watching the rain drops? Listening to the wind? Last week Bill and I saw a double full rainbow. Aaah!
If you find a moment to go S-L-O-W, give us a call, send an email. We promise to only check email twice a day (not frantically every hour) and to answer promptly. If you use GoogleTalk or Skype then we’ll interact, too. Love you. XOX.
Happy Birthday, Joslyn. Can't believe you are t-w-e-n-t-y!
Jasmine enroute to Australia via Bali ~ thanks for the pc from the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Beautiful country!
Natala in Las Vegas at MIX06. Keynote: Bill Gates, who else? Don't work too hard, Natala.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind (The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson 1859-1907)
There is a movement to S-L-O-W down. I’m not just saying this because I’m nearing my dotage. I’m finding it alright to slow down once in awhile, to stop and think, remember friends, write a friendly email to family to let them know I am thinking of them, pick up the phone to call. It only takes a minute but it has rich rewards and positive consequences both for our own hearts (physical and emotional) and to those we reach out to. Try it.
It Italy, Carlo Petrini started the Slow Food movement in 1986. That was when Sheila was ten and Natala turned twelve and I was still picking up and dropping off and waiting in cars for programs to end. Then I went back to work a few years later, after a divorce and moving house and moving again. I’m still sorting my books. The concept of small bytes of time is one that I’m just starting to comprehend. Fifteen minutes to check email, a half hour of AM/PM Stretch yoga, a 45 minute walk with Brizzie, a home cooked meal. Slow is having lunch at the Madras Cafe where all the food is vegetarian and made from scratch and the garam chai awakens your senses for the rest of the day. Or, eating fish curry to improve brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNFs), too Science News, March 4, 2006 p. 136.
A "movement in which some people choose to deliberately preserve and cultivate the values they consider threatened by the insistence on doing everything ever more quickly" is the Slow Cities movement. Aptly, its logo is the snail.
Hersbruck in lower Bavaria is a Slow City in Germany. The market town of Aylsham in Norfolk,England (where my grandfather joined the Norfolk Rifles before WWI) has joined Slow Cities. Brtonigla in Croatia. More than 30 small Italian provincial towns including Greve in Chianti, Orvieto, Bra and Positano. The University of Urbino is the movement's official think-tank.There are Slow travel tours but they seem more like the movie:If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), which I loved. Don’t rush this tour, you’ll miss the point. No car alarms, no loud noises, organic food, yes, wireless is okay. It’s the best of both worlds.
This is not about watching the paint dry on the wall or arguing about two flies climbing it. This is about living a rich life and knowing it, being aware of it, participating in it without becoming a sanyasi or an ascetic. Just say NO to fast food. Try observing a Sabbath, if not every week, maybe once a month. A book about the movement by Carl Honore is In Praise of Slow Unfortunately, the American press translated the title as In Praise of Slowness.
S-L-O-W is not about saying no to innovation and new ideas. Just put on the brakes, don’t raise your child to be an over-scheduled hothouse flower. Remember watching the rain drops? Listening to the wind? Last week Bill and I saw a double full rainbow. Aaah!
If you find a moment to go S-L-O-W, give us a call, send an email. We promise to only check email twice a day (not frantically every hour) and to answer promptly. If you use GoogleTalk or Skype then we’ll interact, too. Love you. XOX.
Happy Birthday, Joslyn. Can't believe you are t-w-e-n-t-y!
Jasmine enroute to Australia via Bali ~ thanks for the pc from the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Beautiful country!
Natala in Las Vegas at MIX06. Keynote: Bill Gates, who else? Don't work too hard, Natala.
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