Ok, I’ll admit it early on. The shock to us here at jorgandolif.com is that Carl Honore has finally tweeted after a too long silence, rather than the fact he’s on Twitter at all. What has the author of Slow bible “In Praise Of Slow” had to tweet about?
Well, on July 12, Honore’s full tweet went like this:
“Heading off to Halifax, Nova Scotia to sing the praises of Slow Food. And hopefully to eat some, too. Walk the talk, and all that….”
Readers, I’d be intrigued to know what you make of that. Far be it from me to forensically examine the tweet, word by word, or character by character in Twitter’s case, but what the heck, I’m going to.
Yep, it seems Honore likes food, walking, talking and erm, all that. Oh, and a bit of singing too.
Not interesting enough? Well, how about the fact that he tweeted from an iPhone? Yes, Mr Slow has an iPhone. No messenger sent on horseback for him, I tell you.
iPhones are the axe murderer of slow-style mindfulness. iPhone users can stand in a whirlwind and not notice the wind in their hair. How do I know? I’m an iPhone user too.Enough already?
You can take some more? Be careful. Ok. Honore tweeted from his iPhone on, wait for it, a Sunday morning, no doubt while his wife was bopping him on the head with a rolled-up Sunday Times in a bid to alert him to the children hanging from his chinos desperate for ten minutes of daddy’s attention before he’s up and off to Nova Scotia. I made this last bit up; I’ve no idea if he reads The Sunday Times.
I’m re-reading “In Praise Of Slow” at the moment, and it strikes me as a very good time to revisit some of Honore’s key observations.
One I’d like to stress in this post, particularly pertinent given the above, is that a Slow Life isn’t one lived like you’re a tortoise – unless you’re a tortoise that is – but a life lived at the RIGHT SPEED. Not so fast that you miss the detail, but not so slow that you miss the boat.
In my view, Twitter, not unfairly considered the communication tool for people too busy to type more than 140 characters, does have an appropriate place in a slow life. It frees me up to go slow on the big stuff, like how I raise my son, what I cook my family, what I do for a living, even.
I should also admit that I combine striving to live a Slow Life with being hooked on re-runs of 24 (isn’t that the ultimate irony? Perhaps we could rename it 48? Go Slow Jack Bauer!), can see my Tweetdeck in my sleep, and like to know which band the kids are listening to next, never mind now.
What do you think? Does Twitter have a place in a slow life? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment here and you can do it in more than 140 characters too ;-).
