There's a scene in the mockumentary film Spinal Tap where one of the band members is describing the special amps they use with volume that goes to eleven, rather than the usual ten.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
For so many of us, that's how we try to live our lives. Multi-tasking. Using technology to squeeze ever more into the nooks and crannies of our lives. Doing everything we can to turn up the volume to eleven.
And ultimately, that becomes mind-numbing. We don't have the time or ability to notice the subtle pleasures of life, our ability to perform at our best suffers, and the stress mounts ever higher.
In response to that, there is a slow movement afoot. Slow living. Slow food. Even slow towns. But how do you start injecting a dose of slow into your life if you're blazing along at top speed? For The Cloud Spotter's Guide author Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the answer is simple. Look up.
His book was a best seller in the UK last year and there is now a web site called The Cloud Appreciation Society. While the book is filled with fascinating facts and anecdotes about clouds, it's just as much an exercise in contemplation and rejection of the accepted goals of modern life, something that fits well into the slow life canon.
"The speed at which clouds develop and change is so gradual; it's quite the opposite of the pace of life in the city. By spending a little time contemplating clouds, you're really forced to slow down. It's a kind of meteorological meditation," he says.
"Most people walk around looking at the floor, but the whole act of looking upwards is almost like a yogic exercise; you broaden your perspective and open your vision."
If you want to do your best work, you need to give your mind time to "lie fallow." I love the idea of using cloud contemplation as a tool to help that happen. It's easy, it's simple, takes no special training and no special doo-dads to make it happen.
How about you? What helps you slow down?
--
Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst TM
Curt,
As a child I recall lying in the summer grass, watching the fair weather cumulus drift by.
Now that was slow!
And I can also remember getting a kick from how weather systems approaching Ireland from the Atlantic would signal their arrival by flattening the tops of those same cumulus clouds.
Over time the fluffy cloud growth would be throttled as the first high altitude cloud layers made their appearance.
Until anywhere from 6-18 hours later the clouds had thickened and lowered and the rain began.
To a 10 year old kid these were some amazing mysteries - and I used to keep a simple weather log describing the approaching weather as I saw it occur.
For some years meteorological interests consumed me (with a passion) and I went on to study it at university.
These days I still look at the clouds now and again, and wonder - but the pleasure I enjoy the most because it is so relaxing (and impossible to worry while doing so) is to go for a 20 to 30 minute run.
Enough to work up a sweat and a pleasant buzz from those natural endorphins that kick in from time to time.
Have you ever felt that 160bpm heart rate, sweat running down your brow, breathing fairly hard and feeling pretty da%n good about things?
Now that is s-l-o-w ;-)
I Love it.
regards
Mark McClure
Tokyo
Posted by: Mark McClure | July 15, 2008 at 07:58 PM
Mark, it's amazing how many place we can find s-l-o-w if we make the effort to look for it, isn't it. Sounds like running is your current cloud contemplation.
Posted by: Curt Rosengren | July 17, 2008 at 08:05 AM