Saturday, July 11, 2015

Mr F, Chair Pioneer


Your best ideas, those eureka moments that turn the world upside down, seldom come when you're juggling emails, rushing to meet the 5 P.M. deadline or straining to make your voice heard in a high-stress meeting. They come when you're walking the dog, soaking in the bath or swinging in a hammock. Carl Honore

In In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore wrote of the "Slow Movement," which seeks to do everything at its proper pace.  The Slow Movement now encompasses anti-homogenization movements, ecology and Christianity, fashion trends, local produce and goods consumption, a leaving of digital means of producing art, and even parenting: "slow parenting" is the practice of refusing to schedule as many activities for kids so that they can discover their childhoods themselves.

The general idea seems to be to take more joy in the moment: in the task of creating, in the process of getting there, in the minute-to-minute existingness of life, rather than on the goals.  To worry less about what we are achieving and more about what we are doing.

 Put another way: When was the last time you spent a few minutes just hanging upside down from a hammock?

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