Living Slowly

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“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but the last great human freedom — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances …” — Viktor Frankl, from Man’s Search for Meaning

“Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still

for once on the face of the earth,

let’s not speak in any language;

let’s stop for a second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines;

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea

would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt

would not look at his hurt hands.” — Fragment of a poem by Pablo Neruda

We have been given a paradise, if we could but see it. We have forgotten not only how to see it but how to live in it. Maybe the slowdown we are having now will allow us to learn how to stop destroying the only world we have. Yes, there are plenty of…