What do the “slow lifers” offer?
When the revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton was arrested by his revolutionary friends and sentenced to death, he began to carefully study Latin. “Is it time for it?” asked one of the prison guards puzzled. “I will have no other time,” answered Danton. Danton had nowhere hurry, but we, usually not knowing when we are going to say goodbye to this life, are always in a hurry. Meanwhile, we hurry not only at work but also at rest. When the young people are going, let’s say, to a café, their main task is to do as many pictures as possible and quickly “upload them on the Facebook.”
When the tourists visit another country, their primary goal is to jump off the bus as quickly as possible, be photographed at the sightseeing, then ran back to the bus and head for a new sightseeing. When the same tourist visits the Louvre or the Hermitage, he runs about ten halls in two hours and leaves the museum as if “full with impressions.” But people are going to a café to communicate with each other, to look at each other’s eyes, and feel the warmth of each other. Whether it is possible after 40 “selfies”. What do we understand of the monastery or temple if we stand near it only about 3 minutes? Can we have an idea about the painting by running from hall to hall? Maybe it is necessary to go to the museum to look at one canvas.
The examples of leisure and entertainment are more vivid, but these observations refer to our whole life. We put forward some goals before us (let’s say, it is earning money), we hurry to implement them and do not get any pleasure from the process of their implementation. And it turns out that even reaching our goal, we feel nothing but emptiness. We eat to feel full, don’t we? But when eating, we do not go into the detail whether the food is sweet, bitter, fruit or vegetable. When chewing, we are thinking about our daily problems and automatically rush to swallow everything.
Incidentally, we are satiated too late. In the late 1980s, a movement popped up in the West which was called a Slow Life. Everything started with the food. In 1986, protests were held in Rome against “McDonalds” and “fast food” objects, in general, and the proponents of this movement were contrasting Slow Food to Fast Food. The point is environmentally pure, diverse, appropriate to given climate, and as we would say, about the homemade food. Over the years, the “slow liver’s” movement included various aspects of life: work, art and tourism. For the latter, special “slow” hotels were built. Everything here is made from local and natural food, the guests are moving only barefoot, and each hotel has a small observatory.
“Slow Living” does not mean lying on the sofa all day and not to carry out any daily obligation. The matter is about something else. When we do a work, we should focus on it and receive the maximum pleasure from this process rather than thinking about thousand other works and troubles. Also, out of work, when eating we should think about eating, about the food on our plate, when walking, we should concentrate on walking. When reading, we need to read slowly, our brain does not develop when we swallow the text. (This is why it is preferable to read books rather than Internet pages, which we simply turn over the pages). When listening to a serious music, no need to “jump” to tomorrow’s conference topics. If we live so, we will manage a lot more. Eventually, we need to have minutes during the day when we do not think about anything, when you “empty” the content in your head, which can be “filled” with much more afterwards. As to how to do this, let everyone decide for himself. Well, this is the end, I need to finish this article. I have a lot of other work to do.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
Aravot daily
