In Praise of Slow

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Carl Honoré

NOTE: I can't quite decide whether to classify this book under Entertainment, or Professional and Technical, or Religion and Spirituality. So I decided to classify it under a neutral classification as Non-fiction.

I've long been searching for something that would explain to me why I am what I am or why I do things the way I do things. I'm pretty much certain that I walk, talk and even think slow. Some people get bothered or irritated by it. Some even ridicule me for it. I have given those remarks a typically long but hard look. And I was just about to conclude that these people were right and it's about time I started speeding up things. But as it is my character to take things slowly, I procrastinated and decided to put it off for another day. That day is yet to come.

One day, while I was browsing through my favorite bookstore, and contemplating on how I will actually change from what I am to (slow) to what I should be (fast), my eye caught a book with a very interesting title - In Praise of Slow. It instantaneously drew me to it. My mind was screaming, "This is it. This is what I've been looking for all these years!"

I flipped through the first few pages. And the very first few sentences grabbed me as if saying to me, no screaming at me, "This is you! This is the story of your life!"

The first few paragraphs read: "ON A SUN-BLEACHED AFTERNOON in the summer of 1985, my teenage tour of Europe grinds to a halt in a square on the outskirts of Rome. The bus back into town is twenty minutes late and shows no sign of appearing. Yet the delay does not bother me. Instead of pacing up and down the sidewalk, or calling the bus company to lodge a complaint, I slip on my Walkman, lie down on a bench and listen to Simon and Garfunkel sing about the joys of slowing down and making the moment last. Every detail of the scene is engraved on my memory: two small boys kick a soccer ball around a medieval fountain; branches scrape against the top of a stone wall; an old widow carries her vegetables home in a net bag. Fast-forward fifteen years, and everything has changed. The scene shifts to Rome's busy Fiumicino Airport, and I am a foreign correspondent rushing to catch a flight home to London. Instead of kickin' down the cobblestones and feelin' groovy, I dash through the departure lounge, silently cursing anyone who crosses my path at a slower pace. Rather than listen to folk music on a cheap Walkman, I talk on a mobile phone to an editor thousands of miles away. At the gate, I join the back end of a long lineup, where there is nothing to do except, well, nothing. Only I am no longer capable of doing nothing. To make the wait more productive, to make it seem less like waiting, I start skimming a newspaper. And that is when my eyes come upon the article that will inspire me eventually to write a book about slowing down."

Wow! It struck me like a truck. Kung baga, natauhan ako.The mention of a song by Simon and Garfunkel, "Feelin' Groovy," which carry the lyrics, "...slow down you move too fast, you got to make the morning last..." also struck a chord in me and got me humming the tune.

From the moment I saw the book and read it's intro, I got hooked and I devoured the book with gusto. Now I return to read it from time to time just to assure me that there's nothing wrong with me, that I am in fact now a member of a growing movement worldwide that is challenging "the cult of speed."

When I hear people say, "take time to smell the roses," I know exactly why and what they really mean by it.

Read the book and slowly wallow in its pleasure. By the way, this may not have been tested or certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but I am sure this will help you avoid stroke and heart attacks. Perhaps I should classify this under Health, Mind and Body.

What do you think? No rush...