Speed and Slowness


”There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting…. 
The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.”
—Milan Kundera (1929 – ), Czech writer

In other words, the faster you go, the more you forget; the slower you move, the more you remember.

Picture yourself walking down the street, nothing on your mind, when suddenly you want to remember who it was you meant to call this afternoon.

“Who was that?” you ask yourself, and automatically you slow down, rub your chin, and almost come to a stop.

“Ah, yes, that’s who!” On you go now at your usual brisk clip.

It’s human nature — unless those humans are “entrained” from childhood to lead an unending fast-paced life. The slower times used to be built into our lives — remember them? All but disappeared now.

We now have to consciously weave those slower times into the fabric of our otherwise distracted lives.

A s-l-o-w walk around the block, or its equivalent, today, with no specific purpose?