The French have the right idea about slowing down.
Free bicycles every 900 feet or so in
Initially the program was conducted in Lyon in 2005, but now the “Vélib” program is taking off in
I’d like
What I like about the French is just how French they are. Did you know that French is the official language spoken in heaven?
I have completely forgotten that they invaded
I once gave a talk to a small group of about thirty people. I asked them if they thought that a large proportion of drivers on the road were incompetent or reckless. Most people agreed that there were. I then asked them if they thought of themselves as an incompetent or reckless drivers. None did.
It’s a funny thing everyone in the room considered themselves a better driver than most. How could this state of affairs come to be?
I expect that the term “good driver” means different things to different people. Each driver may have developed special skills. Some are proud of being able to be the fifth car to go over an intersection after the light had changed to red.
There are those multitasking drivers who are putting on makeup, talking on the phone, listening to the radio, and mediating an infantile civil war in the back seat.
Then there are the drivers who have developed superior concentration. They watch the road so assiduously that pedestrians and crosswalks are invisible to them. Others have such religious faith in their safety that they double park in the middle of the road.
Drivers with a more musical proclivity delight in honking their horns. Some have evolved extra sensory perception, and, like whales, communicate with each other by the high-decibel vibrations. One of those drivers just drove by. I am grateful that my living room windows have stopped rattling. Here in Northern California we sometimes mistake this vibratory communication for earthquakes. You see people are different, and what makes a good driver is in the eye of the beholder.
Slow driving should be engaged in with extreme caution. It does tend to aggravate those in a hurry. Now, I’ve been told never criticize the person, only the behavior. Sometimes, being in a hurry can happen even to those who have realized their inner slow person.
But driving gives us a chance to practice politeness, patience, and generosity. We can demonstrate the slow way.
The rear view mirror’s function remains opaque to some. Have you ever been in a parking structure stuck behind driver who finds it necessary to check every filled parking place for signs of movement before ambling to the next one?
I have. And it can test your patience. But we slow types can try to practice patience. I don’t want to get all superior about this because I have failed to be slow on many occasions. Slow is more of a direction than a destination.
I do find that if I let others go before me; if I let pedestrians walk across the crosswalk; if I give my parking space to someone, they appreciate it. I get a nod or a wave, and that makes me feel good. It makes my day much more pleasant.
Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but I just can’t manage to listen to the radio, or talk on the phone, or even think of very much when I am driving. When I drive, I just drive. I should point out I am a man, and can only do one thing at a time. But even if the environment won’t let me drive as slowly as I would like, at least I can practice politeness—some of the time.
The more I think about slowing down, the more my thoughts veer toward creativity. The creative process needs time. Healing takes time. Growth takes time, so does learning something new.
The body has its own rhythms. If you injure yourself, how long does it take to get better? You can’t exactly plan a date in which you will be healed no matter how much effort you put in. The best you can do is to look after yourself, but the body will go at its own pace. It can’t be rushed. Time is the great healer.
Creativity needs unstructured time. But what is creativity? Is it creating something new? Is it originality? It certainly is generative. Sir Ken Robinson, a wise educator, says creativity is an imaginative process leading to original results that are of value.
Imagination is something that is innate, but also needs respect and cultivation. Imagination can easily be destroyed by a mechanistic education. Imagination is something authentic and personal. No one else can have our imagination for us. Creativity is a way of being in the world. It’s not goal oriented: it’s a process.
So what is this creative process? It starts off with activity without direction, or at least not much direction. It’s important to tolerate vagueness. Everyone’s process will be different. My experience is with painting, drawing, and writing. When writing, I make notes in my notebook. Some of these are sentence fragments. I keep a notebook by my bed. Some of my most imaginative ideas have come to me in that state between sleep and waking.
I don’t worry too much about grammar at this point. I can’t because I am sometimes half asleep. But I certainly do pay attention to grammar later on in the refining stage. Just getting words on paper is the first step for me. These initial ideas are the springboard to other ideas. There is a sense of play. This is a private world so I have complete freedom to write any way I please. How often do we get such freedom? It’s only later, after several revisions, does the completed work appear.
Only by not rushing to some pre-defined goal do I slow down enough to be present and play. And what is play? It’s trying things out. It’s practice. You see young animals playing at fighting and defending themselves. It’s preparation for adult life and it’s enjoyable. At least, kittens or puppies seemed to be enjoying themselves.
The direction comes from the process, it’s not something imposed from outside, like following a set of instructions.
Learning something new takes time. It’s easy to become used to instant gratification. Learning requires effort and perseverance. But what are our expectations for the amount of effort we must put in? It took a lot of effort to learn to walk. It took a lot of effort to learn to speak. Growing and learning are slow processes. If you enjoy the process, you’re more likely to continue to do it. If you’re in a rush to attain a specific goal and don’t enjoy the process, you’re far less likely to continue in that direction once you have fulfilled a requirement. How many people took the wrong major in college?
No one knows what the future will bring. It won’t be like the past. Seven years ago Google never existed. Who could have predicted the world we now live in? But one thing is for sure, we need imagination and creativity. For those things, we need to take the time to slow down.