In Praise of Slow
Page 24
When it comes to slowing down, it is best to start small. Cook a meal from scratch. Take a walk with a friend rather than dashing off to buy things you don’t really need at the mall. Read the newspaper without switching on the TV. Add massage to your lovemaking. Or simply take a few minutes to sit still in a quiet place.
If a small act of Slowness feels good, move on to the bigger stuff. Rethink your working hours or campaign to make your neighbourhood more pedestrian-friendly. As life gets better, you will ask yourself the same question that I often do: Why didn’t I slow down sooner?
Bit by bit, my own speedaholism is on the wane. Time no longer feels like a cruel and irresistible taskmaster. Working freelance helps, as does meditating and leaving my watch in the drawer. I cook, read and switch off my cellphone more often. Taking a less-is-more approach to my hobbies—no more tennis until my children are older—has eased the pressure to rush. Reminding myself that speed is not always the best policy, that haste is often pointless and even counterproductive, is enough to curb the acceleration reflex. Whenever I catch myself hurrying for the sake of it, I stop, take a deep breath and think: “There is no need to rush. Take it easy. Slow down.”
People around me notice a difference. I used to hate supermarket checkouts, regarding them as an affront to my personal crusade for speed and efficiency. Women raking slowly through their purses for the right change were a particular bugbear. Now I find it easy to stand in line without fuming, even when other lines seem to be moving faster. I no longer fret over the “wasted” seconds or minutes. On a recent shopping trip, I actually found myself inviting the man behind me in the lineup to go first since he had fewer items. My wife was stunned. “You really are slowing down,” she said, approvingly.
When I set out to write this book, though, the real litmus test for my own deceleration was whether I could take the hurry out of bedtime stories. The news is good. I can now read several books at a sitting without once worrying about the time or feeling the urge to skip a page. And I read slowly, savouring every word, heightening the drama or humour with assumed voices and facial expressions. My son, who is now four, loves it, and story time has become a meeting of minds rather than a war of words. The old “I want more stories!”/“No, that’s enough!” sparring is gone.
One evening not long ago, something remarkable happened. I lay down on my son’s bed to read him a long fairy tale about a giant. He had lots of questions, and we stopped to answer them all. Then I read an even longer story, this one about a dragon and a farmer’s son. As I closed the book on the final page, it suddenly dawned on me that even though I had no idea how long I’d been reading—fifteen minutes, half an hour, maybe more—I was happy to continue. My flirtation with the One-Minute Bedtime Story was now a distant memory. I asked my son if he wanted me to read more. He rubbed his eyes. “Daddy, I think that’s enough stories for tonight,” he said. “I actually feel quite tired.” He kissed me on the cheek and slid under his duvet. I dimmed the bedside lamp before leaving the room. Smiling, I walked slowly down the stairs.
NOTES
Introduction: The Age of Rage
“TIME-SICKNESS”: Larry Dossey, Space, Time and Medicine (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1982).
INNER PSYCHOLOGY OF SPEED: From my interview with Guy Claxton in July 2002.
KAMEI SHUJI: Scott North, “Karoshi and Converging Labor Relations in Japan and America,” Labor Center Reporter 302.
AMPHETAMINES IN THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE: Based on workplace tests carried out by Quest Diagnostics in 2002.
SEVEN PERCENT OF SPANIARDS HAVE SIESTA: Reported in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Neurology (June 2002).
FATIGUE AND DISASTERS: Leon Kreitzman, The 24-Hour Society (London: Profile Books, 1999), p. 109.
MORE THAN FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE DIE: Figures from European Commission.
WHAT MUSICIANS CALL TEMPO GIUSTO: Percy A. Scholes, Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 1,018.
Chapter 1: Do Everything Faster
BENEDICTINE MONKS: Jeremy Rifkin, Time Wars: The Primary Conflict in Human History (New York: Touchstone, 1987), p. 95.
UVATIARRU: Jay Griffiths, “Boo to Captain Clock,” New Internationalist 343, March 2002.
COLOGNE CLOCK: Gerhard Dorn-Van Rossum, History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 234–35.
LEON ALBERTI: Allen C. Bluedorn, The Human Organization of Time: Temporal Realities and Experience (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), p. 227.
CREATION OF GLOBAL STANDARD TIME: Clark Blaise, Time Lord: The Remarkable Canadian Who Missed His Train, and Changed the World (Toronto: Knopf, 2000).
PROMOTING PUNCTUALITY AS A CIVIC DUTY: Robert Levine, A Geography of Time: The Temporal Adventures of a Social Psychologist (New York: Basic Books, 1997), pp. 67–70.
FREDERICK TAYLOR: Ibid, pp. 71–72.
VELOCITIZATION: Mark Kingwell, “Fast Forward: Our High-Speed Chase to Nowhere,” Harper’s Magazine (May 1998).
FIVE-HUNDRED MILLION NANOSECONDS: Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine (Boston: Little, Brown, 1981), p. 137.
Chapter 2: Slow Is Beautiful
DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF SPEED: Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), pp. 125–26.
“BICYCLE FACE”: Ibid, p. 111.
Chapter 3: Food: Turning the Tables on Speed
AVERAGE MCDONALD’S MEAL ELEVEN MINUTES: Nicci Gerrard, “The Politics of Thin,” The Observer, 5 January 2003.
COMMUNAL DINING TOO SLOW: Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 354.
PIGS SPED UP: Barbara Adam, Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards, Global Environmental Change Series (New York: Routledge, 1998).
SALMON GROW FASTER: James Meek, “Britain Urged To Ban GM Salmon,” Guardian, 4 September 2002.
TAD’S 30 VARIETIES OF MEALS: Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (New York: Penguin, 2001), p. 114.
RÉSTAURATION RAPIDE: Adam Sage, “Au Revoir to the Leisurely Lunch,” [London] Times, 16 October 2002.
E-COLI POISONING FROM HAMBURGERS: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, pp. 196–99.
DWINDLING ARTICHOKE VARIETIES: Figures from Renato Sardo, Director of Slow Food International, quoted by Anna Muoio in “We All Go to the Same Place. Let Us Go There Slowly,” Fast Company, 5 January 2002.
YACON SUGARS UNMETABOLIZED: National Research Council, Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989), p. 115.
BUSINESS LUNCH LASTS THIRTY-SIX MINUTES: Based on a survey by Fast Company magazine.
KWAKIUTL PEOPLE ON FAST EATING: Visser, Rituals of Dinner, p. 323.
PATRICK SEROG ON SLOW EATING: Sage, “Au Revoir.”
ITALIAN CELLPHONE AND FOOD SPENDING: Interview with Carlo Petrini in the New York Times, 26 July 2003.
Chapter 4: Cities: Blending Old and New
FIFTEEN HUNDRED PEOPLE FLEE BRITISH CITIES WEEKLY: Based on the 2004 report Social and Economic Change and Diversity in Rural England by the Rural Evidence Research Centre.
“URBAN TIME POLICIES”: Jean-Yves Boulin and Ulrich Muckenberger, Times in the City and Quality of Life (Brussels: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1999).
WAR ON NOISE IN EUROPE: Emma Daly, “Trying to Quiet Another City That Barely Sleeps,” New York Times, 7 October 2002.
TRAFFIC AFFECTS COMMUNITY SPIRIT: Donald Appleyard, a professor of Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley, pioneered research on this subject in 1970.
FLOW TO SUBURBIA SLOWS: Phillip J. Longman, “American Gridlock,” US News and World Report, 28 May 2001.
PORTLAND MOST LIVEABLE CITY: Charles Siegel, Slow Is Beautiful: Speed Limi
ts as Political Decisions on Urban Form (Berkeley: Preservation Institute Policy Study, 1996).
Chapter 5: Mind/Body: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano
RELAXATION A PRECURSOR OF SLOW THINKING: Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less (London: Fourth Estate, 1997), pp. 76–77.
GREATEST THINKERS THINK SLOW: Ibid, p. 4.
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION CUTS HOSPITALIZATION RATES: Results of five-year study of two thousand people across the United States, published in Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987).
“BEING IN THE ZONE”: Robert Levine, A Geography of Time: The Temporal Adventures of a Social Psychologist (New York: Basic Books, 1997), pp. 33–34.
FIFTEEN MILLION AMERICANS PRACTISE YOGA: Based on a survey conducted by Harris Interactive Service Bureau for Yoga Journal in 2003.
“WALKING TAKES LONGER …”: Edward Abbey, The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West (New York: Dutton, 1977), p. 205.
SUPERSLOW WORKOUT BOOSTS HDL CHOLESTEROL: Letter submitted to Health101.org by Philip Alexander, M.D., Chief of Medical Staff, College Station Medical Center Faculty, Texas A&M University, College of Medicine.
Chapter 6: Medicine: Doctors and Patience
“BEEPER MEDICINE”: James Gleick, Faster: The Acceleration of Everything (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 85.
2002 FERTILITY STUDY: Conducted by David Dunson of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina, pooling data from seven European cities.
CAM PRACTITIONERS OUTNUMBER GPS: Figures released in 1998 by the British Medical Association.
Chapter 7: Sex: A Lover with a Slow Hand
HALF AN HOUR PER WEEK DEVOTED TO MAKING LOVE: A 1994 study carried out by researchers at the University of Chicago. Cited in James Gleick, Faster: The Acceleration of Everything (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 127.
WHAM-BAM-THANK-YOU-MA’AM: See Judith Mackay, The Penguin Atlas of Human Sexual Behavior (New York: Penguin Books, 2000), p. 20.
ARVIND AND SHANTA KALE: Quoted in Val Sampson, Tantra: The Art of Mind-Blowing Sex (London: Vermilion, 2002), p. 112.
MARITAL PROBLEMS HURT PRODUCTIVITY: Melinda Forthofer, Howard Markman, Martha Cox, Scott Stanley and Ronald Kessler, “Associations Between Marital Distress and Work Loss in a National Sample,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 58 (August 1996), p. 597.
Chapter 8: Work: The Benefits of Working Less Hard
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ON SHORTER WORK HOURS: John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001), p. 129.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW PREDICTED: From a paper delivered by Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt at Symposium on Overwork: Causes and Consequences in Baltimore MA, 11–13 March 1999.
RICHARD NIXON FOUR-DAY WEEK: Dennis Kaplan and Sharon Chelton, “Is It Time to Dump the Forty-Hour Week?,” Conscious Choice, September 1996.
US SENATE FORECASTS SHORTER WORK HOURS:: De Graaf, Affluenza, p. 41.
WHILE AMERICANS WORK AS MUCH: According to figures from the International Labor Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American working hours rose between 1980 and 2000, then tapered off slightly as the economy slumped.
AVERAGE AMERICAN NOW PUTS IN 350 HOURS MORE: John De Graaf, Take Back Your Time Day website www.timeday.org.
US SUPPLANTED JAPAN IN WORK HOURS: Based on figures from International Labor Organization.
ONE IN FIVE THIRTY-SOMETHING BRITONS: From a national overtime survey commissioned in 2002 by Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry and Management Today magazine.
MARILYN MACHLOWITZ ON WORKAHOLISM: Matthew Reiss, “American Karoshi,” New Internationalist 343 (March 2002).
MORE THAN 15% OF CANADIANS ON BRINK OF SUICIDE: Based on an Ipsos-Reid survey carried out in 2002.
BELGIUM, FRANCE AND NORWAY PRODUCTIVITY: Hourly productivity figures based on statistics from the 2003 report from the International Labor Organization.
70% OF PEOPLE WANTED BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Survey published in 2002 by Andrew Oswald of Warwick University (UK) and David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College (US).
GENERATION FUREETA: Robert Whymant, [London] Times magazine, 4 May 2002.
THE AVERAGE GERMAN SPENDS 15% LESS TIME: Based on figures from the International Labor Organization.
LANDMARK POLL ON THIRTY-FIVE-HOUR WEEK: Conducted by CSA (Conseil Sondages Analyses) for L’Expansion magazine (September 2003).
JAPAN STUDYING “DUTCH MODEL”: Asako Murakami, “Work Sharing Solves Netherlands’ Woes,” Japan Times, 18 May 2002.
PREFER TO WORK FEWER HOURS THAN WIN LOTTERY: From a national overtime survey commissioned in 2002 by Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry and Management Today magazine.
TWICE AS MANY AMERICANS WOULD CHOOSE TIME OFF: Survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners, Inc.
CANADIANS WHO WORKED LESS HAD MORE MONEY: Survey carried out in 1997–98 by Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
MARRIOTT HOTEL CHAIN’S PILOT PROJECT: Bill Munck, “Changing a Culture of Face Time,” Harvard Business Review (November 2001).
DONALD HENSRUD: Anne Fisher, “Exhausted All the Time? Still Getting Nowhere?” Fortune, 18 March 2002.
A RECENT STUDY BY NASA: Jane E. Brody, “New Respect for the Nap, a Pause That Refreshes,” Science Times, 4 January 2000.
CHURCHILL ON NAPPING: Walter Graebner, My Dear Mister Churchill (London: Michael Joseph, 1965).
Chapter 9: Leisure: The Importance of Being at Rest
PLATO BELIEVED HIGHEST FORM OF LEISURE: Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 1998), p. 141.
“… ROLL IN ECSTASY …”: Franz Kafka, translator Malcolm Pasley, The Collected Aphorisms (London: Syrens, Penguin, 1994), p. 27.
MORE THAN FOUR MILLION AMERICANS: Knitting figures from the Craft Yarn Council of America.
MENTAL EQUIVALENT OF SUPERSLOW EXERCISE: Taken from Cecilia Howard’s Cloudwatcher’s Journal at www.morelife.org/cloudwatcher/cloudwatch_112001.html.
LISZT TOOK “PRESQUE UNE HEURE”: Grete Wehmeyer, Prestississimo: The Rediscovery of Slowness in Music (Hamburg: Rowolth, 1993). (In German.)
MOZART TEMPO TANTRUM: Uwe Kliemt, “On Reasonable Tempi,” essay published on the Tempo Giusto website at www.tempogiusto.de.
BEETHOVEN ON VIRTUOSOS: Ibid.
RICHARD ELEN: His review appeared on www.audiorevolution.com.
ORCHESTRAS MUCH LOUDER: Norman Lebrecht, “Turn It Down!,” Evening Standard, 21 August 2002.
Chapter 10: Children: Raising an Unhurried Child
SLEEP-DEPRIVED KIDS HAVE TROUBLE MAKING FRIENDS: Samantha Levine, “Up Too Late,” US News and World Report, 9 September 2002.
EAST ASIAN WORK ETHIC BACKFIRING: “Asian Schools Go Back to the Books,” Time, 9 April 2002.
FINLAND ROUTINELY TOPS WORLD RANKINGS: John Crace, “Heaven and Helsinki,” Guardian, 16 September 2003.
Conclusion: Finding the Tempo Giusto
WHOLE STRUGGLE OF LIFE: From my interview with Sten Nadolny in 2003.
FUTILITY, AN EERILY PRESCIENT NOVEL: Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), p. 110.
RESOURCE LIST
I read many books and articles for my research into speed, time and slowness. Below are those that stood out. Though some are academic, most are aimed at the general reader. Farther down is a list of useful websites. These are a good starting point for exploring the benefits of slowness and for connecting with people who are slowing down.
BOOKS
Blaise, Clark. Time Lord: The Remarkable Canadian Who Missed His Train, and Changed the World. Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2000.
Bluedorn, Allen C. The Human Organization of Time: Temporal Realities and Experience. Stanford: Stanford Business Books, 2002.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Hims
elf. New York: Random House, 1983.
Claxton, Guy. Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. London: Fourth Estate, 1997.
De Graaf, John, David Wann and Thomas Naylor. Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001.
Gleick, James. Faster: The Acceleration of Everything. New York: Random House, 1999.
Glouberman, Dina. The Joy of Burnout: How the End of the Road Can Be a New Beginning. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2002.
Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy, and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff. Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Learn—and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2003.
Hutton, Will. The World We’re In. London: Little, Brown, 2002.
James, Matt. The City Gardener. London: HarperCollins, 2003.
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.
Kerr, Alex. Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan. New York: Penguin, 2001.
Kreitzman, Leon. The 24-Hour Society. London: Profile Books, 1999.
Kummer, Corby. The Pleasures of Slow Food: Celebrating Authentic Traditions, Flavors, and Recipes. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002.
Kundera, Milan. Slowness. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.
Levine, Robert. A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Scientist. New York: Basic Books, 1997.
McDonnell, Kathleen. Honey, We Lost the Kids: Rethinking Childhood in the Multimedia Age. Toronto: Second Story Press, 2001.
Meiskins, Peter, and Peter Whalley. Putting Work In Its Place: A Quiet Revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.
Millar, Jeremy, and Michael Schwartz (editors). Speed: Visions of an Accelerated Age. London: The Photographers’ Gallery, 1998.
Murphy, Bernadette. Zen and the Art of Knitting: Exploring the Links Between Knitting, Spirituality and Creativity. Avon: Adams Media Corporation, 2002.
Nadolny, Sten. The Discovery of Slowness. Revised edition. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2003.