The Art of Slow

The May 2009 issue of Monocle carries an interview with Bruno Contigiani, the Italian founder of the Art of Slow Living movement. (Article available here online for subscribers. If you are not a subscriber, you can find Monocle at Barnes & Noble or Borders in the Current Affairs magazine section.) The focus of the article is Contigiani's imaginary "last meal," but what caught my attention was his definition of time:

Time is defined by the realisation that you do not live forever. When you move slowly, you live life better.

It is counterintuitive, but true: once you come to grips with the fact that you will NOT live forever, that time really is a limit on your life, then you are free to slow down. Once you admit you can't do everything, no matter how hard you try, then you become free to change your focus to doing things well, like Bruno Contigiani does, instead of doing more things.

Contigiani was not born knowing this; in fact, he was a hard-charging PR executive in Italy with a schedule that many of us would recognize: "with every minute packed with activities," he says. But 10 years ago, on holiday in southern Italy, he was seriously injured when he dove onto a rock in the water. During his long recuperation, grateful for his survival, he realized that most people, including him, were not making time to do the important things in life. So he started the Art of Slow Living movement, devoted to appreciating life each and every day.

Remember the Present Tense way to happiness: REM--Relationships, Experiences, Memories. Be rich in these, and you will have a life well lived, whether it is long or short. Let the measure of your life not be found in the area of your house, the balance at your bank, or the letters in your title. Let it be instead be in the number of people who call you friend, the sum of minutes you spend around the table with your family, or the number of stories you can recall of good times passed.

And finally, remember too what Bruno Contigiani says about eating (emphasis mine):

I try to eat healthily but I am not militant about it. We are not trying to live to 140 years of age. We just want to make sure that we stay healthy.

Eat well, and don't feel guilty about it. Life is good--enjoy it!