Today’s Pick: The slow life
In Praise of Slow
Did you know that today, February 25, 2008, is the second annual Worldwide Day of Slow Living? If that’s news to you, let’s slow down for a minute and talk about the growing international slow movement.
Carl Honoré, a Canadian journalist based in London, was in Toronto recently to speak about the slow movement at the Ontario Library Association conference.
Honoré is the author of In Praise of Slow (2005), exploring the cultural shift towards slowness.
You’ve probably heard about slow food, but Honoré shows how slow principles — such as thoughtfulness, awareness of natural rhythms and design on a human rather than industrial scale — can inform all aspects of our lives. For example, John Brown, an architecture professor at the University of Calgary, launched the slow homes movement to promote sustainable and beautiful homes and neighborhoods.
For Honoré, the speed of modern life can have an anesthetizing effect — we get so caught up in multitasking that we become numb to the texture of daily life, to the detriment of both our work and personal lives. On February 25, give slowness a try; if Honoré is right, your work, your love life, and your body will all thank you!
Kathryn is the Market Research Information Specialist Intern at MaRS. She is a graduate of the Masters of Information Studies program at the University of Toronto.