The Slow Life Movement
Shahram Hosseinion 10/16/08
I think this is what Carlo Petrini was getting at in terms of how he observed our lifestyle’s
deteriorating connection with food, but I am observing a critical mass of fast paced lifestyle
which I believe is destroying us. A patient of mine had a sweatshirt with a picture of a turtle on it
and the line “Speed Kills”, and that’s when it hit home, we’re spiraling out of control the fast
pace of our lifestyle. Maybe it’s the emphasis on quantity over quality that we value so highly in
our culture of overconsumption and materialism. Only the multi-taskers are keeping their jobs,
we don’t have time to read any more, it takes too long, distill the 20 hours it might take to read
a book into an 80 minute movie, and the message will have a chance at reaching public
knowledge. Movies need to be catchy, flashy, fast, high information in minimal time, because
our time is so supposedly valuable that it cannot be wasted, yet we lay in bed at night, tossing
and turning from stress induced anxiety, unable to sleep, unable to relax in our hard earned
free time. What’s wrong with this picture? It’s like the ‘Dilemma of our Age’ that the Dalai Lama
talks about, “lots of information, but no true knowledge.” Even as I write this on my laptop, I am
unable to remember the quotes and names correctly without my wireless internet connection
working (maybe I’m in an electronic black hole right now, I guess not, though, because I still
have electricity). Okay, here we go…ah, I can’t find the exact quote right now, oh well.
So I’ve been recently contemplating the Attention Deficit Disorder concept. It’s a problem for
kids in school, even for emerging adults in their workplace, but applied correctly, it could be a
very successful workforce ability of multi-tasking. It seems an inescapable reaction to our
current approach to life. Equally so are the problems of Stress from trying to do too much,
Anxiety because of too much stress, and becoming depressed about the whole situation our
lives are in; we go faster and faster, do more and more, but are less and less fulfilled. We
have focused almost all our energy on the flashy exterior, our material world, and so neglected
the inner, our spirit, our soul, our collective human and world and universal
interconnectedness. The Dalai Lama has appropriately voiced the importance of compassion
and kindness in our lives, but I believe that our core problem is lack of attention to our spirit,
our soul, which is the conscience that will guide our love and compassion into the beauty of its
full bloom.
I am making a call to everyone to consider the value of attention to the inner selves, attention
to the subtle beauties of our existence; this is a call that we will only hear if we slow down
enough to listen. Walk slowly, drive slowly, arrive slowly, eat slowly, cook slowly, chew slowly
time goes too fast anyways, the faster we go, the faster time goes, so we actually have to slow
down for life to move slowly. Don’t get too many things done, get less done and enjoy the
process of doing those things. Enjoy the now, this very moment of existence, cherish the
powerful human experience that you are having at this very moment.