Taking It Slowly

Published in 1983, Sten Nadolny’s novel ‘The Discovery of Slowness’ is based on the life of the arctic explorer Sir John Franklin and can be read as a hymn of praise to ‘slowness’. We have a copy and I am half way through it. The book has inspired television programmes, experimental films and even an opera. Jurgen Moltmann refers to his compatriot’s novel in his book ‘God for a Secular Society’, which I am also reading at the moment. Moltman says ‘in the moment which is fully and wholly lived we experience eternity. Isn’t the living intensity of a single lived moment more than all the hastening through the times of life in their extensiveness?’ He goes on to say that it may be our suppressed fear of death which makes us so greedy for life. He argues that the individualism of modern life means that we hold on to life as long as we can because when it’s over there’s nothing else, whereas in traditional societies the wider perspective in which people have lived, lives on.

‘Slowness’ - in the original German 'langsamkeit' - is associated with mental disability, but in Nadolny’s hands the idea becomes a powerful asset. The ‘slow’ person can afford to wait and attains victories unimaginable to the people who are always rushing about. Having spent much of my life doing just that but now lacking the work-context or energy to continue doing so, I am trying to learn this hard lesson. I see that Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading, has written a book called ‘Do Nothing to Change Your Life’ in which he says we should all slow down, finding time to sit and think (and make your own bread and grind your own coffee beans, he says).

The advantages of slowness? Physically you might be less likely to stumble, knock things over and lose energy without needing to. You could also emotionally distance yourself from the mad pursuit of pleasure that is such an oppressive symbol of modern culture. There could be time to cherish family and friends as well, and value the modest achievements of your past and explore a few possibilities for the future. For a person of faith, slowness gives space for contemplation and ownership of an interior life free of the conventions of a religion that may be more about appearance than substance.

Most of all slowness could mean acceptance of advancing years not as a burden but as a gift.

B .R.