Sustainable Greenville

It didn’t take too long after arising that I felt a little under the weather. Within an hour, I felt absolutely horrible. Why? I thought about it and came up with several potential culprits. But probably the biggest culprit was excessive work hours the preceding days. Yesterday was about an eleven hour day. That started me thinking about how unsustainable my use of time has been.

The one comment I hear most about time: ‘I wish there were more hours in the day’.  

Many of us have said it and will continue to say it, even with that extra hour we will get tomorrow evening. When it comes to time, most of the emphasis is placed on how productive we are in both our personal and professional lives. However, is productivity really higher when we place more time on whatever it is that we are trying to produce?

Yesterday, I was trying to “save time” by eating in the vehicle for lunch. The last two minutes of eating was done while pumping gas. Is that productive? Studies show that 19% of American meals are eaten in our vehicles. How have we gotten to this point? How have we become such masters of consumerism? Well that’s too long of an issue to get into at this point. But one thing that history has shown is at various times individuals have revolted against the excessives of time.

The most modern of revolts started in 1986 when Carlo Petrini launched the Slow Food movement in response to a McDonalds opening a branch beside the Spanish Steps in Rome. That revolution started a whole number of other revolutionary slow groups: Slow Home, Slow Cities, Slow Design, Slow Fashion, and a whole host of other groups. Here in the Upstate, we do have a Slow Food chapter. They represent the need to have a saner lifestyle, something that provides peace, calmness and clarity.

Due to this trend to slow down, books and articles abound on the subject. A few of the more memorable books include “Slowness” by Milan Kundera, “The Discovery of Slowness” by Sten Nadolney, “In Praise of Idleness” by Bertrand Russell, “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser and “In Praise of Slowness” by Carl Honore.

Carl Honore, in his book, asks three self imposed questions that are relevant to each of us.

‘Why are we always in such a rush?’

‘What is the cure for time-sickness?’

‘Is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down?’

See Carl speak at TED.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Religions, spiritual leaders, mystics and the like have been asking these questions since the beginning of human time. To ask these questions means we want to improve our spiritual lives, to move from materialism to spiritualism, to escape from mental agony. No wonder there are so many self help groups and rehabilitation centers. For most of them, the spiritual life is the answer. They all end up asking the inflicted individual take a closer examination of their over extended lives. As a result, some of the spiritual slogans you hear in everyday life include “easy does it”, “one day at a time”, “first things first” and “keep it simple stupid”.

Simplicity is the root of time freedom. For many people the idea of sustainability has to include a proper perspective of time. To have a sustainable life, one must have “time management”. How else can we submit ourselves to a life filled with family, friends, work, church and play? To give too much of ourselves results in a lower quality of life, leading to stress, anxiety, fear and depression. So we must find balance in our lives. That is why many people turn to prayer, meditation, exercise and self help books. Like so many parts of the country, our community is filled with activities like yoga, tai chi, and church groups.

One such activity here in the Upstate is the upcoming Amazing Faiths Dinner Dialogue on November 12. I participated in the Upstate’s first dialogue last year. The experience of people from various faiths coming together for an evening of shared food and an open discussion of spiritual ideas lead me to a place of easy comfort where time slipped away.

And I think that is the crux of our lives: the irrelevance of time, despite what we may think. So we should embrace simplicity. But it isn’t always easy. I think it is best said by Dr. David Shi, President of Furman University, in his book “The Simple Life”:

If the decision to live a simple life is fundamentally a personal matter, then so, too, is the nature and degree of simplification. There is no cosmic guidebook to follow.

So it becomes a personal journey, determined by our past lives and our current environment. Whether  I choose to follow a particular path based upon religion, personal experience or the help of others, there is no more time than what is given to me right here, right now.