It's a book on the "Praise of Laziness " (Bundo Publishing House) by Jacques Leclercq (1891 – 1971) a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian and priest. An editorial staff member of the Catholic Peace Weekly writes in praise of the book in this week's paper. When your head is spinning and you wonder whether living this rat race is worth it, your hands need to grasp this type of book.
Not a big book and the point of the book is stated in the title. We need to slow down the pace of life. Some will thing this is crazy talk, now entering the 5G era, 20 times faster than the fourth generation communication speed. The tone of the book is probably clumsily made but he hits the bullseye.
He says the intensity of life in our time boasts about the confusion we experience. Many of the inventions deal with speed rather than with acquisition of wisdom. In addition, he considers this a type of superfluity. He compares it to visitors who can not remain just for a moment of silence in front of a work of art while in a museum. People who have their nose in a smart phone searching for information ... In his eyes, this sort of thing is nothing more than an addiction to speed.
The author was not a rural hick with a romantic disposition towards life. He became a lawyer at the age of 20 and practiced law. He became a priest late in life and was a distinguished scholar in the fields of natural law, ethics, and sociology. He was insightful in seeing the truth of life .
If you can not be lazy in this fiercely competitive society, you should slow down your pace of life. We are accustomed to rapid speed. Because of this, "we are proud to say we are so busy we don't know whether we're coming or going." We get used to the confusion and in this life style there is no waiting, silence, reflection and calm. We can't hear the inner voice nor try to listen to it. It's not a normal condition.
It takes courage to slow down. Furthermore, some practice is necessary to not be anxious about the slow speed, walking is one such practice. Walking is a primitive travel method of 4 kilometers an hour. Humans lived their everyday life building civilization at that pace until they invented automobiles. However, we lost our normal sense of speed, trapped within a civilization of science and technology. Our walking itself continues to atrophy
Walking is a time of silence and reflection, walking in silence to the rhythm of our feet, the song of the heart is heard. The song of the heart begins seeing "a drop of dew falling from the tip of a twig that shakes." Now is a good time to walk. However, let's leave the earphone in the house. When I plug in the earphone, I can't hear the song of the heart. The machine sound that flows from the earphone can't be more beautiful than the sound of birds and wind.
