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Slow life, better life
Ida Hakola, SixDegrees
Ever thought that it’s you keeping your schedules happy and not vice versa? A couple of years ago Canadian journalist Carl Honoré found himself always being in a hurry and started to dig into the philosophy of slow life.
“MY RHYTHM of life had gotten so fast that I was constantly trying to save a minute here, another there. My wake-up call came when I caught myself thinking of buying a collection of One minute bedtime stories. At that point I realised that my speedaholism had gotten so bad that I was even willing to speed up the most intimate moment between me and my son,” Carl Honoré describes the crucial point of starting to live his life at a slower pace.
So Honoré gave up the race against the clock and started to ease up with his schedules. Aside from that, he wrote a book In Praise of Slow, of which he was talking about at the urban festival Megapolis 2023 in Helsinki in September.
Slow food, sex, rest, travel
“The idea behind slow life is not really about doing things at a snail’s pace, but at the right speed. It’s about concentrating on quality instead of quantity. Slower life is also ecologically stronger life,” Honoré explains.
In Praise of Slow has already been published in 30 countries all over the world. The problem of speeding up seems to be global
(? December 2008)
Your Money or Your Life: A Conversation with Vicki Robin (audio)
Liam Moriarty, KPIU
Mortgages are melting down, the financial system is unraveling and layoffs are sweeping the economy. Vicki Robin says maybe it’s time to re-think the priority in our lives that we give to money. Robin is co-author of the book, “Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence.” The now-classic guide to doing more with less has just been reissued. Robin spoke with KPLU’s Liam Moriarty.
(December 2008)
Astyk: What Is Your House Worth?
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
What Is Your House Worth? Both Less and More than You Think
… Is the whole story of home ownership unremittingly bleak, however? If you are underwater, is that the end of home ownership for you? My own take is that it isn’t, that there are several ways to shift the economic situation so that homes move from the debit column to the asset column.
The first is to shift your thinking. Until not too long ago, people rarely thought of their homes, primarily as assets. Your home is, well, your home. Its value lies not in its potential sale price, or your ability to trade it for something, its value lies in its function. Now only you can evaluate whether you will be paying too high a price for that home – and this is something we all need to think through. But if your house is worth the price to you, too tight a focus on its “official” value distracts from the reality – one’s home is one’s home.
… That means that you need to evaluate your home for what else it can do for you. Can you grow a garden, and reduce food costs? Plant fruit trees, nuts and berries? Raise chickens, rabbits or bees to provide food and fertility? Raise larger livestock? Produce some of your home heating or cooking energy in the form of anything from coppiced firewood to twigs and dried grasses for a tiny hot rocket fire to stir fry over?
Could extra rooms in your home enable you to produce additional income or reduce total costs. Could you rent out a room, make an apartment and rent that, or take in a housemate? Could you consolidate with your family or with friends? Do you really need all the space you have?
Do you have a workshop that would enable you to do home repairs, fix your own appliances and otherwise cut back on new purchases and hired labor (you may have already done this, but if you don’t, it is time?). Do you have the equipment to mend and repair your own clothing, rather than replace it, or perhaps even make new?
(16 December 2008)
