In Praise of Slow
Every revolution has a manifesto. A document which outlines the principles under which the fight was joined in the first place. The Americans had Paine and Jefferson, the French had Rousseau, the Russians had Marx. All elegant wordsmiths to be sure. My revolution is based on this book.
Honore, Carl. 2004. In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed. Vintage Canada. ISBN 0676975739.
Our society is moving way too fast these days, so fast that we often wonder blankly how we ended up where we are. The reason is that we are too caught up in living for the future moment that we can’t even really see any more. We believe that if we stop and enjoy the moment that we will run out of precious nonrenewable time, and as we all know, time is money.
This book is a liberation. This book is hope, this book is the promise of actually living in and enjoying the moment now. It is a compelling argument for self regulation of time and priorities in order to achieve a better balance of life, a better quality of life.
Two chapters into this book and I quit my job at Gigantic Concrete with no where to go. Your mileage may differ, but for me it was the only thing that finally made sense. Long live the revolution.
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I own this book too. My colleagues gave it to me as a going away present when I quit my job to run away to live in my desert shack. Fortunately I’ve been occupied doing all the lazy things I always wanted to do, so I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet
I understand their gesture, but this was already my philosophy of the heart before I knew this book existed. Hope your personal revolution is going as well as mine. — Bean
It is amazing how with all the modern conveniences we seem to not have time for liesure. We’ve created more liesure, and fill it with more meaningless dross than we would ever have imagined. I like a full day, a full life, but it isn’t the same as hectic nor does it preclude liesure. A reminder is always good. So… Thanks.
Bean - then you are ahead of the game… I came to the philosophy late, well into my curmudgeonly years. This old dog is learning new tricks.
Scott - You are right, we have automated leisure right out of our lives. Less dross, more life I say.