Lately, I can’t seem to get enough of hobbits. I think I’m beginning to understand why.
Bilbo, the hero of ‘that book’ by Tolkein, exemplified the moderate. He was a hero of the strength of a calm, relaxed, everyday life comprised of relaxing with a pipe or second breakfast. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, he achieved great things. Similar for Frodo and Sam.
The further I go and find the courage to slow down, the more it seems to pay off.
The ‘fast world’ will treat you like you are crazy, but in a world where we make ourselves sick and drive to the gym, is that so bad?
I just spent half the day letting my body recover from yesterday’s slow hike of only 17km (10 mi), but had a nice time, good conversation, did some needed planning, and avoided the rain.
Pareto’s law seems to encourage us strongly to not go to excess: Roughly, from many activities we receive 80% of the benefit from 20% of the effort, implying that often the remaining time would be better spent on something else.
In a world of hyper- specialisation, where humans largely become consumers except for one particular way of sitting and arranging characters on a screen, we might ask (once again) whether this is healthy.
Again, I think it is perhaps ‘social pressure’ which leads to the diminishing returns of perfection. (See recent post and ‘giant scrum of the world cartoon’.) Perhaps this is also enabled by cheap resources such as energy and food.
Recently some arguably ‘extreme’ athletes said ‘what a shame you’ve done the most intense part of the hike (the Alta Via dei Monte Liguri, a wonderful hike along the Ligurian mountains roughly near Genoa), and the rest isn’t that high.
Well, I actually love the green lower mountains as much as or more than the high alpine areas. Both have their own beauty. Extremer isn’t necessarily better. Carry 14 kilos all day, and everyting feels extreme.
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