Silence and Human Speed

[Hedera]

Desiderata; "Go placidly among the haste and noise, and remember the peace there may be in silence"
I think I've quoted it correctly; it was very popular a few years ago and still stands.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Hedera

Desiderata; "Go placidly among the haste and noise, and remember the peace there may be in silence"
I think I've quoted it correctly; it was very popular a few years ago and still stands.

I'd forgotten about that one - something that's often easier said than done though!

There is a lovely peice in John Lane's book Timeless Simplicity about a fisherman and an industrialist. The fisherman is relaxing after having caught enough fish for his daily needs and the industrialist is shocked that he is not catching more. More so that he can by a motor for his boat to catch more fish, so he would have more money, so that he could earn enough to relax and enjoy himself. Which is the fisherman points out exactly what he is doing at the moment - enjoying himself. It's a book well worth the read - a book which keeps your thoughts flowing with every paragraph.

[Cellarman]

Originally Posted by eeyore

true to an extent , but pre industrial revolution only the rich had any substantial ammount of leisure time , the normal folk worked very long hours in order to pay rent and put food on the table , there was no NHS and a usual working man couldnt afford a doctor , travel was local only , no widespread electricity - no central heating , heat provided only by open fires etc etc

It was not the idylic existence that some costume drama likes to portay , and for many the existence was as Thomas Hobbes said " Nasty, brutish, and short" and therefore not the least bit "lovely"

Absolutely true. Just look at the life expectancy of that time compared to modern day. There are some rose-tinted views in this thread - taking personal current lifestyle and transposing it to those times. Simple things like good clean drinking water, basic hygene and clean living conditions were not available to the majority of the population then.

[Bumblebeebob]

A lot of indications are now emerging that may prove the Industrial age will be the shortest in human history! Growing global population, fast dwindling resources, more conflicts. So we could all be living pre-industrial revolution lifestyles again pretty soon!

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by tufftie

Well this si the first cat i had in 10 years and most of the other things I don't have and I still have time to just sit and be with an empty mind..looking at nature

What do you do with the CAT....Naomi.....

[Markulous]

Pre fifties I'd be dead, never mind pre IR - Rhesus baby

Personally, I enjoy all modernity has to offer - transport (motor, train and air), communications (phone and internet), water (h&c, drainage), electricity (to run it all). I love music (so arguably iPods tho' I own an Archos) but watch very little TV (just installed FreeSat after a year with none) but do watch quite a few DVDs, play the kids' XBox360 (but only co-op games with them). Most important of all: photography

I appreciate peace and quiet but certainly don't miss it or yearn for it if it's not there!

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Markulous

Pre fifties I'd be dead, never mind pre IR - Rhesus baby

Personally, I enjoy all modernity has to offer - transport (motor, train and air), communications (phone and internet), water (h&c, drainage), electricity (to run it all). I love music (so arguably iPods tho' I own an Archos) but watch very little TV (just installed FreeSat after a year with none) but do watch quite a few DVDs, play the kids' XBox360 (but only co-op games with them). Most important of all: photography

I appreciate peace and quiet but certainly don't miss it or yearn for it if it's not there!

Same here I was a Rhesus baby too..
also I had two ops so don't think I would have survived them no steroids to rely on..

I get peace and quiet when I need it walking along the bridleways here you never see anyone else..
Or sitting in my garden on a warm summer evening watching the birds hearing the humming of the bees the plops in the pond as the frogs come and go..
Who needs total quiet when these sounds relax me.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Markulous

Pre fifties I'd be dead, never mind pre IR - Rhesus baby

Personally, I enjoy all modernity has to offer - transport (motor, train and air), communications (phone and internet), water (h&c, drainage), electricity (to run it all). I love music (so arguably iPods tho' I own an Archos) but watch very little TV (just installed FreeSat after a year with none) but do watch quite a few DVDs, play the kids' XBox360 (but only co-op games with them). Most important of all: photography

I appreciate peace and quiet but certainly don't miss it or yearn for it if it's not there!

and roughly the same here - i was born blue , and also had a club foot - now pre IR i might have survived but i'd have been a crippled mental deficient. (difficult to cure that with herbs)

Its easy to see how someone could in theory yearn for a preindustrial lifestyle, but I suspect that in practice it would start to wain fairly quickly.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by eeyore

i was born blue

I now will have this enduring image of Eeyore being born blue - and rather thinking he'd be pleased as it'd give him something else to be all Marvin (HGTTG) about!

[tufftie]

I didn't mean total quiet - I meant without machine noises - bird, water, animal noises are all natural and very relaxing I've obviously worded things badly because as I tried to say above I meant to live in the now if the IR hadn't happened. It would be very different from pre IR because we would have moved on from that!
As for things like medical issues it's almost getting to a point where alternative therapies are more advanced than conventional ones. I also think that it's a bit like the hare and tortoise where that's concerned but alternative medicine will always struggle to gain a hold due to the financial gains for conventional medicines. There are many conventional doctors who practice alternative therapies alongside conventional ones..there's one in Spain who does major surgery without anesthetic or sedatives - he just uses the power of the mind. There is so much we know now about the links between the emotions and physical body. The placebo effect has some sort of impact on anybody who takes medication. I'm passionate about this subject (almost as much as squirrels!) so could go on but would be at risk from hijacking my own thread - LOL BTW - there are lots of plants which have very good steroidal actions. Medicine would have moved on and I think be better than what we have in place now.
Back to work Hope this sort of makes sense!