“There is more to life than increasing its speed”
Gandhi, quoted in this book
It started with the slow food movement which has spread from Italy to many countries. So Honoré starts his journey of slowing down with a report of the most popular slow movement, but his own epiphany as a frantic London-based journalist trying keep up with he demands of work and his attention to his small children. He saw an “AD” for “The one-Minute Bedtime Story”. Too good to be true – until he realizes that his whole life has become an exercise in hurry – he has become a Scrooge with a stopwatch.
The journey that became this book takes the witty and perceptive author through the terrain of not only slow food, but city life, thinking, medicine and healing, work, leisure sex and finally back to his original inspiration – raising children.
In his introduction, The Age of Rage, Honoré blames modern capitalism which generates extraordinary wealth at he cost of devouring natural resources faster than Mother Nature can replace them. He says that in today’s turbo-capitalism, we exist to serve the economy, rather than the other way around. With that in mind I read this book slowly and deliberately, although it is a quick read written with a deft and personal touch. I read a chapter a night, slowly, and reflected on each topic with the words of his introduction filtering my reflections. As Honoré writes the benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections – with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds.
And for the author – it has meant reading longer stories to his children and being happy while he does it.
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