A Tale of 'Whoa!'

Just Say No to Speed

Though the book is not a bestseller, it comes out at an intriguing time. It is not so much catching a giant wave as tapping into a strong, silent undertow. This is the antidote to trend-spotting volumes such as "Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy" and "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything."

And it may become a new manual for folks seeking a simpler, smaller, slower life. Some are successful; some less so. Some are sanctimonious; some sincere. You can find them here and there, at the Seeds of Simplicity program at Cornell University, participating in the online Simple Living Network and signing up for the Take Back Your Time national conference later this month in Chicago. Honore is scheduled to be one of the speakers.

Slow "is a whole cool concept," says Cecile Andrews, one of the conference organizers and an adjunct professor of education at Seattle University. "I think people are just pushed to the limits."

Andrews, 61, is the author of "The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life." Calling herself a "time activist," she also stages workshops to teach people how to slow down. She encourages everyone to lobby for more vacation time and shorter work weeks. And to find ways to decelerate their personal lives -- by sitting down to meals, by taking a full hour at lunchtime during the workday and by having friends over to your home.

Americans of all stripes are working longer and harder than ever, she says,

"People's productivity can't go up any further," she says. "We're working nine weeks more than the average European. We're multi-tasking and eating breakfast cereal in our cars."

We need, she says, to say no to speed.

"We've almost lost the ability to slow down and have community and communications," says Andrews, who has also given workshops on how to have conversations.

She asks participants questions such as: What would a slow family look like? A slow neighborhood? A slow city?

It's not easy to slow down in the United States. "People look at you as a slacker," Andrews says. But "what we're saying is: Most of us do not stop and make choices. We are such a fast-paced society."

Chew (Slowly) on This

Throughout history there have been voices calling for deceleration.

The Luddites of the early 19th century hoped to slow down the Industrial Revolution by destroying knitting machines and weaving looms in England.

Abraham Lincoln appreciated the value of both liberation and deliberation. In 1863 he wrote that he hoped to stand firm enough "to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause."

Henry David Thoreau swore by slow. So did Albert Einstein.

Eleanor Roosevelt observed that "all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises."

Today the prophets of slowness include writer Wendell Berry and John de Graaf, author of "Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America," a 2003 collection of essays. But most Slow People get lost in the contrails of the Fast.