Blog season 2, episode 3: sightseeing or box-ticking
I failed my first driving test for speeding (there was a good reason, honest). Before my second test, I had a few minutes to kill and, with Radiohead’s OK Computer in the CD player, I did what I never do, and put it on shuffle. The track it selected was The Tourist.
I don’t believe in fate, but sometimes weird things happen that make you wonder whether someone or something is interfering. When the song reached its chorus, I had one of those moments:
Hey man, slow down, slow down
Idiot, slow down, slow down
I’d failed my first driving test for speeding and now, shortly before my second attempt, a 1 in 12 chance had delivered the one song that relaxed me exactly the way I needed. All I needed to do was slow down, avoid speeding like I did in that one very specific situation (there really was a good reason), and I’d be fine.
I passed the second test.
I’m not extolling the virtues of driving slowly – that would be hypocritical – but I am saying it would do us all good to slow down generally. Whenever I get stressed or too rushed, Thom Yorke’s pleas to “slow down” play in my head. I take a deep breath and sloo-oow down.
You’ve probably heard this before; it’s not a new point of view…
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi
A person must be selective with their time and energy because both elements of life are limited.
Kilroy J. Oldster
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
Socrates
In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.
Pico Iyer
The Tourist by Radiohead was inspired by sightseers rushing from attraction to attraction, not taking the time to appreciate any one thing.
Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think we need to be flat out. There’s so much to see! So much to do! So much to own!
It depends why you want to see, do, or own any of these things.
Do you want to visit another country to see its sights, experience its culture, meet its people? Do you want to go to a concert to feel the music and sing along? Do you want to buy a masterpiece to add colour or drama to a room, appreciate the detail of its brushstrokes?
Or is it a box-ticking exercise? Is the main purpose being able to say, “I’ve seen/done/got that.”?
When you look back, do you want to reminisce over a selfie you took outside Wembley Stadium? Or do you want to remember the match or show you saw, the awe you felt at how high the arch seemed from the inside, the atmosphere of sharing something you enjoy with tens of thousands of like minds, the smell of the grass or the magic of the light show?
Of course, if you did the second, there’s no reason you couldn’t have the first too. But if all you did was the first because you rushed off to something else, you won’t have the richer memories.
Some things are worth hurrying. Chores, for example; it’s worth speeding through the washing up if it allows more time to do things you want to do.
But rushing through the things you want to do, to the detriment of your enjoyment of them, just so you can tick them off?
I’ll pick quality over quantity.
Arrowmaker Books 