Slowing Down: Crossword Puzzles

The idea of relaxing with a cup of good coffee while solving the Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle seems a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning. I say the idea because in reality Sunday mornings are anything but slow in my world. Oh, and I'd be the first to admit that the Times puzzle is way above my head. But I'm working my way up.

One of my daily rituals is to pick up the two free papers with crosswords included. True crossword aficionados would laugh but I enjoy solving these novice puzzles on the train ride home. It stops my mind from running and pushes back the work day. So even while my mind is working it feels as if I'm slowing down.

Slowness

I can't remember how long ago I read "Slowness" by Milan Kundera nor most of the plot. I'm pretty sure I didn't own a cell phone yet. I do remember that the contrast of pace between the lives of the 18th century courtesans and the contemporary characters. Now more than a decade after the book was published, the question "Why has the pleasure of slowness disappeared?" posed by the narrator seems even more apt. The 15 year old book seems prophetic of our ever accelerating lives in a digitally driven world.

There's lots I love about technology, like being able to talk to friends on the long train ride home or track down long lost friends who should have never fallen out of my life. On the other hand, I don't like the 24/7 connectedness, the platform for stupidity (I will not name political movements here), or seeing how engrossed people are with their various devices. There's something chilling about watching people text. Is this what we were given opposable thumbs for?

I don't think I would be happy in living in a horse drawn world where getting to the next town is a major effort. I would not like to wait weeks for a message to arrive from a friend. I do however wonder what happened to the world where Sunday dinners were not rushed. Where activities like taking a loaf of bread to the duck pond to feed the ducks was more likely than rushing around to stock up at Mega Stores.

I fondly remember Sunday afternoons where there was time to read or take a nap while football played on the TV in the other room. It was normal to just take a ride in the car with no real purpose other than to take a look around while the roast was cooking. Then the whole family would sit down at my Grandmother's dinning room table and enjoy a meal together. There was no sense of rushing.

This month I'm planning on lots of posts that celebrate Slowness.

Slowing Down

I missed the start of the work week yesterday to a root canal, but last Monday was one of those mornings when everyone seemed to be struggling. It was a real Monday Rush hour with lots of unhappy faces and visible frustration. The MTA ticket machines seemed particularly unforgiving.

The woman in front of me at the ticket machine could not get the machine to issue her a ticket no matter what she tried. She finally went off in a huff and though she made me wait and added to my Monday anxiety, I felt real sympathy.

It seems when you are in a rush, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. "Haste makes waste." I know for myself when I'm rushing every possible obstacle seems to surface. When I'm struggling to find my glasses or metro card and stuff starts flying out of my purse, sometimes I wisely remember to slow down before things really spiral out of control.

This month I'm taking a "slow and steady wins the race" approach. I'm going to try and take deep breaths when things get crazy and most of all explore the power of slow. Here's to all things slow.