These days, my wife is always asking me about going here, going there - let’s do this, let’s do that. I sometimes say ok. I sometimes make excuses. But I always say to myself inside … why, I’m fine here, in my own world and imagination. What’s the fuss and hurry to do this, do that? Buy this? See that?
The video is from me a few years ago on my mountain top in Nicaragua. I was enjoying a cold beer and turned my head and this beautiful sloth, slumbered down the tree. One of the workers told me later, it was scared from the impending storm and thunder, going to take shelter.
But it was a thing of beauty. Nature delights in its diversity. I was slow then. Still am. But I’m in the middle of fast world. Miss my Nicaraguan mountain years.
I found the video on a hard drive that is headed for China or wherever they send those things that no longer operate efficiently, that are now “slow”. But I share it here to comment a little on “slowness”.
[Kundera wrote a book on slowness. He makes some good comments about the topic but overall the book was too slow. I’m being genuine. His early stuff, much better. Also a caution about writing in one’s second language.]
Ok. I’ll take it slow. I’ll meander. What’s the rush? I’ll just let the thoughts come and go. If you give up reading, it’s because your caught in the rush to know, caught in the show, the blow … you don’t know where you go, but you go - cuz it feels in pace, like you’re saving face, like you are getting there.
My first year in high school, I didn’t do well in running. I hadn’t hit my “growth spurt”. I was 88 lbs stinking wet. Small. A slow grower. I looked up to a guy called Derek Beach. He had a sister, Sandy Beach. I won’t get into that … remember, I’m going slow.
So, Derrick. He had talent. Tall, slender, ran like the wind. I’d always come 2nd or 3rd to him. He was a very quiet guy. I’d shadow him on our trips out of town to race, shadow him to get some tips. One day, caught him in the gym locker room with his pants off. He had to say something. I asked him why he walked so slow, when he ran so frickin’ fast. He said, “I’m saving it for my races.”
There is a lot to process there. A lot of wisdom. I won’t get into it. Remember, I’m going slow.
But back to the sloth.
I’m like Bukowski these days. What’s the use of pell-mell, helter-skelter swinging here and swinging there. Being so busy and feeling like you’re missing out? So, today, when my wife asked if I wanted to go to the oceanside and take in the military day celebrations, I excused myself … Instead I watched this video about sloths. Wonders of wonders!
View the whole episode here.
The woman is a genius. And she highlights the genius that is “sloth” that 7th sin we are so afraid of. It’s the sin of being different, coming up with a different solution to the same problem.
My mother always told me, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” I’ve always carried that Mr. Fix It attitude with me. I’ll open broken toasters with butter knives, I’ll go left when others go right but it’s okay mama .. I’ll get there just like you, all the same.
It’s a wonderful beast, the sloth. It goes slow to save energy. Just like Derrick. And what the video doesn’t say or convey is that in between … it is enjoying itself. Truly, madly, deeply.
You see, time is a construct. Sorry to break it to you. It isn’t 60 seconds, unless you decide it is. But if you say it is 30 seconds, it is 30 seconds. Up to you. Time passes differently, for us all.
I look at my dog. She’s now 9 years old. We call her 63, same age as me. But that’s really not what I’m getting at. What I’m getting at is - she does not experience time 7x faster than me. No. She thinks I experience time 7x slower than her. And there is a difference there. But I’m going slow, so I’ll save that explanation for another time.
The problem with time is really our improved measuring sticks. Atomic time sucks, you are just a null, void, nothing on its scale. Why even bother. Perspectism. Jeremy Bentham must be squirming in his grave.
I don’t intend to make this piece into a condemnation of our time obsessed society. No. I just wanted to share the beautiful solution of the sloth and offer up the thesis that maybe those we think are so “slow” - like this guy - are not. This stuff, this shit is immeasurable and we’d just as well give up on that measuring wish stick …
I’ve spent almost 30 years as an educator looking at how technology can foster, coddle, cajole, create, affect, help learning. And in those years, all it has offered is speed. Quickness. Efficiency. That’s its MO, modus operandi. But speed isn’t learning, just look at Mr. Sloth.
You can be quick at something but that’s doing, it’s stirring, cooking but not qualitative like tasting. And that’s another thing my mother told me, “The proof is always in the pudding.”
Ok. Back into my Bukowski. Check out the slowness thing. Maybe question why we run around all day, most of the day, like a chicken with its head cut off, like a programmed robot vacuum cleaner. Think about it. And yes, it’s okay mama, I’m only slowing … There is nowhere I want to go. Let the wind blow, let the snow snow, I’ll lie here, for god knows …
Amen.
Ain’t nothing you got to do - didn’t I once sing - you don’t hafta?
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