Text messages must be answered immediately, food must be in 30 minutes, emotions, if you can't name them immediately, are considered non-existent. Slowing down for a beat, you feel behind you, lost, like standing on the side of a road that everyone is speeding through very quickly.
In the morning, eat quickly and then take the coffee to take away. At noon, order boxed lunch. In the evening, ask for shipping. Eating while replying to emails, listening to podcasts, and surfing online news. Chewing but running at the beginning. Fast makes us save time, giving the feeling that we control our lives. In many things, fast is an advantage, from saving people, to making decisions in critical times, grasping opportunities when they just flash.
But being quick also has a downside. Eating so quickly that you don't know if the dish you just ate is delicious or not. Speaking quickly is smooth, but sometimes words are faster than brains, leaving unnecessary consequences. Doing it quickly gets things done, but it's easy to get wrong, easy to get tired. There are relationships that come very quickly, the body is very fast, the promise is very fast, and then cracks are also no less fast. Quick to the point of not understanding each other and leaving each other.
People often advise each other to live slowly. It sounds like a precious medicine for the era of speed. Live slowly, eat slowly, walk slowly, think slowly, love slowly. But slow is not always good. Slow in a world that is running makes us feel lost. When others have decided, we are still considering. When opportunities pass very quickly, we are still hesitant. Slow sometimes turns into procrastination, into standing still for too long.
Someone said it's best to be at the center, average speed, not fast or slow. It sounds reasonable, like any other safe advice. But life is not a straight line for everyone to go at the same pace. Some people are born compatible with high speed; they think fast, work fast, and rest quickly. Sitting quietly for a long time is frustrating and uncomfortable. Some people need to be slow to be sure, speaking a little slow is standard, loving a little slow is enduring.
In fact, there is no speed that is right for everyone. Fast is not bad, slow is not necessarily good either. There is something fast that saves you, something fast that spoils you. There is something slow that nourishes you, something slow that makes you miss. The problem is not in speed, but in whether you are running at your pace or not.
Perhaps, living is not about choosing fast or slow, but knowing when to be fast, when to be slow, and more importantly, knowing what speed makes you not have to try too hard. What speed makes you feel comfortable after finishing work, love without being too tired and living without feeling pressure on your head, then that speed is right for you. Simple.
