Here is a simple maths problem
Together a bat and a ball cost £1.10
The bat costs one more pound than the ball. How much is the ball
10p?
Most people come up with this quick answer
But actually they are wrong
The answer is 5p and the bat is £1.05
This exercise was one of many introduced by Daniel Kahneman – psychologist and Nobel laureate, who died in February
He used many mental tools for illuminating the difference between conclusions reached in sudden leaps and those found by rumination: two modes of cognition that provided the title to his bestselling book Thinking Fast and Slow
He argues that Millennia of thinking and evolution have wired our brains to think quickly – the fight or flight – our very survival was dependent on acting on impulse so we would not become dinner for a mammoth
But our brains have also evolved more sophisticated processes: rational evaluation of probability, abstract reasoning, the self-awareness required to identify unconscious biases and moderate behaviour accordingly
But he says in our modern world we need both ways of thinking to be happy and content and the two modes of thought do not need to be in conflict- they need to be in balance – like in the story of the tea spoon and the drops of oil – seeing beauty around us and the small details
So many walks of life and aspects of living are fired up by this idea that quick thinking is best, slow thinking is inferior
Take politics – so much of our politics in Britain appears to be invested in knee jerk thinking – certainly until recently – with politicians on all sides claiming that they are making long term policies but in fact often they turn out to suit short term benefits
Just take the infamous slogan the Leave campaign in the build up to the Brexit vote
Advertising on buses
We send £350m a week to Brussels – lets send it to the NHS instead
One quick neat slogan – appealed to many voters yet with slower thinking and reflection it was not true
And in world politics how much do leaders react in anger and on impulse to threats and conflict – thinking that this is what their citizens see as strong macho leadership – before taking a long breath to consider if striking back with violence is going to give a better life to millions of citizens
Is the pressure to think and act fast creeping into many areas of life?
Sped up songs – I thought it was an April Fool when I first heard about this – but it’s a real phenomenon – go onto Spotify and there are play lists of speeded up songs – so you can listen to a whole track and save time
Speeded up religion – now cummon that can’t be real ?!
A recent headline….
Godspeed: Welsh church to offer 15 minute ‘micro services’
St David’s weekday services hope to draw in commuters and others with work or family pressures
‘The prospect of sitting on a hard pew enduring a drawn-out service with, perhaps, a meandering sermon at its heart, puts off many would-be church-goers.
But a Welsh church is determined to draw in worshippers who feel they don’t have the time or endurance by staging punchy “micro services”.
The first ‘15 minute church’ will take place at St David’s church in Penllergaer, Swansea, on Monday afternoon.’
The Rev John Gillibrand, the vicar of Pontarddulais with Penllergaer, said the aim was to make church more accessible.
“We’re very mindful of work pressures on family and working life in contemporary society,” he said. “So the idea is to provide people with an opportunity to have a full engagement with the church, but within 15 minutes.”
And who knows maybe this will be popular and is the way forward
But to go back to the work of Daniel Kahneman the invitation for us is to give permission to our brains and hearts to act fast when they absolutely need to and also to slow down, to live in mystery, to take a breath when that is healthy for us
I was encouraged when watching some recent children’s programmes with my son Alec – in an episode of Puffin Rock – there is a delightful story called the Puffin Way which is all about celebrating the slow, mindful approach rather than the anxious in dealing with danger – and probably his favourite show Hey Dougee – there is an episode which is called go slow – the squirrels get their go slow badge
So maybe we are trying to teach our children the slow way of thinking and living
I wanted to call this service in praise of sauntering because I made a discovery recently
Henry David Thoreau, the American naturalist and leading transcendentalist of the 19th century wrote an essay called Walking
He celebrates the art of sauntering – and he explores the meaning of the word
He says that it either comes from the phrase ‘ there goes a sainte – terrer – or saunterer – a holy lander – a pilgrim on route to the holy land – when in the old days they would see someone walking slowly with few possessions
Or the word is derived from the word sans terre – which means without land or home – or maybe referring to a traveller with no fixed home but being at home everywhere
Either way Thoreau is saying that sauntering is a holy experience – and like in the reading taking our time on foot instead of driving will expand our time – elongate it – deepen it – he says a saunterer is like a meandering river slowly moving towards the sea
So can we be countercultural and do more sauntering – or pottering rather than beating the clock – and in doing so we may notice more and see more of creation
the great Vietnamese peace activist and Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (October 11, 1926–January 22, 2022) developed a simple, powerful instrument for refining attention, he developed the spiritual practice of walking meditations – walking mindfully with no destination – and no purpose apart from being alive and present
In his 1992 classic Peace is every step he writes:
https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/04/07/tangerine-meditation-thich-nhat-hanh/
Now I would like to offer a short ritual in mindfulness and allowing our minds to go slow and to saunter…
John passes a bowl of tangerine pieces around
Take a piece of fruit if you wish – really honour it in your hand and then when you eat it – really savour it – as if you will never taste this taste again…
Silence
Let us bring our silence and our time of stillness to a close with a poem by Wendy Cope called The Orange
https://genius.com/Wendy-cope-the-orange-annotated
Amen