Monday, November 23, 2009

Slow Cows, Slow Art, Slow Christmas



With all the rushing around that tends to fill our days - especially at the holiday season - it's sometimes nice to be reminded to slow down a bit. I can't testify to the benefits of the Slow Cow drink, but it sure did catch my attention. [via Springwise]

I know we tend to hurry a lot, but I was still surprised to read that, according to The Smithsonian American Art Museum, "the average person pauses less than 8 seconds to take in a work of art."

But now there's a Slow Art movement. The Slow Art Facebook page explains:
Slow Art is a simple concept: visit a museum. Look slowly at a few pieces of art - i.e. for 10 minutes or longer. Have lunch to talk about it. Do it the same day as thousands of others around the world.
If you're interested, mark April 17, 2010 on your calendar. (The Smithsonian had a Slow Art event in October 2009.)

And in another attempt to slow us down, Porter McConnell is advocating something she's calling Slow Christmas. As she says:
The world is a fast place, filled with stuff, so I guess it makes sense that Christmas would reflect that. The trouble is, we’re all a little broke from living this way, and the planet is groaning from last year’s stocking stuffers. So what if this year, instead of spending time at the mall buying family and friends stuff they may not even like, we spend time with those people instead?

Let’s slow Christmas down. Take a walk with hot cider and take in all the lit up storefronts and decorations. Make Christmas cookies from scratch, go sledding, go to a church with a good choir and sit in the back and bask in the goodwill and beautiful music.
There's lots more on her web site; you might want to take a look.

Related Posts:
Suggestion: Slow Down Sometimes
What I'm Reading: In Praise of Slowness

6 comments:

Porter said...

Jeri, thanks for the nice words! I think we could all use a little slow in our lives, not just at Christmas.

Cynthia Friedlob said...

One of my favorite quotes is from Blaise Pascal: "All of man's problems stem from his inability to sit quietly alone in an empty room." I think that slowing down is crucial to our survival. Unfortunately, our society currently encourages an existence crammed with fast-paced activities and tons of useless stuff. I hope slow gets popular!

Jeri Dansky said...

Porter, I was delighted to stumble upon your site!

Cynthia and Porter, I know that "slowing down" is something I need to work on myself, sometimes!

Julie Bestry said...

I was familiar with the Slow Food movement, but Slow Cow is new to me. I was expecting it to be like milky tea without the tea, but it appears more complicated than that. As always, Jeri, you provide the portal to an amazing variety of new and different things. Thanks!

Ellen Joseph said...

Thank you Jeri, for your reminder to place more value on quality time and less on the quantity of items - I just noticed that time and item are an anagram...hmmmm!
I especially liked the "Slow Art Day" and will mark it on my calendar.
Thanks again for your gems of wisdom - keep them coming!
Ellen Joseph

Jeri Dansky said...

Julie, it's fun to share my discoveries with people like you.

Ellen, somehow I'm not surprised that you liked the Slow Art!