The distinction between fast food and slow food is an easy one to make. Even if we are not exactly sure what slow food might be, we are all familiar enough with fast food to recognize that it represents a much needed alternative. The release of books like Fast Food Nation, The McDonaldization of Society, and Don’t Eat This Book – Fast Food And The Supersizing of America, as well as the Academy Award nominated documentary Supersize Me have brought great public attention to the negative impact of the fast food restaurant industry on both our personal health and the well being of our communities.

At the same time the idea of fast and slow has expanded beyond the realm of food to encompass a more general cultural critique. Carl Honore, in his book, In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed, observes that an increasing number of people are recognizing the frustrations and limitations of our over stressed daily lives.

“The backlash against speed is moving into the mainstream with more urgency than ever before. Down at the grass roots, in kitchens, offices, concert halls, factories, gyms, bedrooms, neighborhoods, art galleries, hospitals, leisure centers, and schools near you, more and more people are refusing to accept the diktat that faster is always betters. And in their many and diverse acts of deceleration lie the seeds of the global Slow movement.”(1)

So called ‘Slow Medicine’ is a reaction against the high technology drug centered approach of conventional medical practice and promotes a more holistic philosophy to health. ‘Slow Cities’ is an Italian movement that seeks to create livable urban environments in which cars are limited and residences, workplaces, shops and schools are within reasonable walking distance to each other. ‘Slow Sex’ promotes the channeling of sexual energy into better sex and a more perfect spiritual union with your partner while ‘Slow Leisure’ trades off extreme sports for activities that allow one to contemplate, relax and sometimes, just do nothing.

In all of these contexts, fast and slow mean more than just describing a rate of change. According to Honore, “They are shorthand for ways of being, or philosophies of life. Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quantity over quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality over quantity. It is about making real and meaningful connections – with people, culture, work, food, everything.”(2)

In these many diverse ways, the people and ideas that comprise the Global Slow Movement are united by a simple goal – to live better in a fast paced world.  Slow Home helps us to bring our homes into better alignment with this goal through the creation of deeper and more meaningful relationships with the places we call home.

Additional References
In Praise of Slow
Slow Planet

References
(1) Carl Honore, In Praise of Slow, Toronto: Random House, 2004, p.14.
(2) Ibid, p.14.