Society
Slow is Beautiful: Living as If Life Really Mattered
By Lane Jennings
A worldwide movement challenges the cult of speed.
When was the last time you sat happily doing absolutely nothing? Can't remember? You're
not alone. Millions in today's overscheduled world are so busy getting on to the next
thing in their lives that they don't realize how much they lose by neglecting the here and
now.
This might sound like futurist heresy, but taking stock of the present is or should be
an essential prerequisite for sound futures planning. Clearly, if you don't know where you
are right now, you can't possibly judge which path is most likely to take you somewhere
you would rather be.
U.S. journalist Carl Honoré first realized his life was off course when he spotted an
advertisement offering "condensed" bedtime stories to help busy parents save
time. At first, the idea sounded great to him—then he asked himself what he was
saving time for that was worth more than half an hour alone with his little boy.
So began a quest that led Honoré around the world, tracking down individuals and
organizations dedicated to opposing speed for its own sake. He wasn't looking for
laziness, but for people seeking balance in every aspect of existence. Going slow doesn't
mean ignoring deadlines didn't matter, but assigning to one's duties and pleasures more
appropriate measures of time and attention.
Studies in many countries find that more and more people are living on the edge of
exhaustion, neglecting the quality of their lives as they futilely strive to maximize
quantity and cram more activities into every hour of every day.
The price paid for constant speed is high, whether measured in money or human lives.
The rush for quick profits is fruitless when it spawns pollution and environmental
degradation that end up costing businesses and society billions. Hurried meals lead to bad
eating habits, poor nutrition, and chronic illness. The lure of speed behind the wheel is
a major factor in the estimated 1.3 million traffic fatalities that occur worldwide every
year. Psychological costs of speed include community breakdown, family stress, and poor
work and school performance. The Japanese have a word for it—karoshi
("death from overwork")—and officials reported a record 143 victims in
Japan in 2001 (critics claim even higher death tolls).
To counteract the swiftness of twenty-first-century existence, new, lessaccelerated
products and activities are making inroads on our careening daily lives.
- Slow housing applies to nonstandardized construction methods and
traditional materials that customize units within large urban housing complexes. Careful
work by artisans helps meet the special needs of individual families while still realizing
the savings and economies of scale that come from prefabrication and largescale planning
for infrastructure and construction.
- Slow exercise encompasses not only such lowstress techniques as tai
chi, yoga, and walking, but also superslow weightlifting and brief but intense workouts
you can perform in your street clothes without ever breaking a sweat.
- Slow reading allows for complete immersion in a text. Honoré reports
on a London reading circle that read one of Dickens' novels in monthly installments spread
over a year and a half. Group members agreed that the excitement of looking forward to
each month's new section, together with the close attention to detail made possible by
rereading existing sections, added greatly to their enjoyment of the story.
- Slow professions include lawyers who take the time to conduct long,
wideranging first interviews with new clients, thus saving time and achieving better
results by learning in detail the client's needs and objectives. In the same way, taking
the time to learn about life experiences, expectations, values, and concerns of a new
patient can help doctors provide better care and achieve faster cures.
- Slow sex—the mystical blend of yoga, meditation, and sex known as
"tantra"—is convincing more people every day that taking the time to
luxuriate in physical sensations can add exciting new dimensions to love making and the
formation of lasting relationships.
Ultimately, Honoré hopes consumers and citizens will embrace the values of slowness in
such numbers that their votes and economic clout will pressure businesses and governments
to effectively rewrite the rules of marketplace and workplace. The result, he believes,
will be that leisured lifestyles, long available only to a wealthy elite, will at last
become available to the majority of humankind.
Source: In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging
the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré. HarperSanFrancisco. 2004. 256 pages. $24.95.
Order online from www.wfs.org/bkshelf.htm.
