A Slight Delay

One day a few years ago, I was wandering through lower Manhattan and saw a book title that stopped me dead in my tracks. The book was In Praise of Slowness, by Carl Honore. Mr. Honore surveyed the Slow movement as it impacted downtown areas, restaurants, and even the local gym.

The idea itself was–and still is–intriguing, but challenging. Especially in the States, and all the moreso in urban areas, we’re conditioned for speed. The pace of life itself has accelerated as time has passed, and shows signs of neither slowing nor stopping. Mindfulness is hard enough; to make the conscious effort to slow in the pace of our day-to-day lives is downright daunting. It’s as though we don’t know how to take it easy. The lunch hour is a rarity, and even those of us who get a full hour end up spending some part of it at our desks, worried whether our down-time is sufficiently productive.

So a story run by the AP, ‘Slow Food’ movement finally picking up speed, probably shouldn’t come as a surprise; amid all the bustle, a few voices are calling for a bit of calm. To quote the article: (more…)