PARADE reckons life philosophies are a bit like fashion – if you wait long enough, what you enjoy and what makes you comfortable will eventually become trendy again.
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It might take a bit of stubbornness, but if you stand your ground, you’ll end up looking like you’re ahead of the curve, even though you were never part of the curve in the first place.
After a period in which being super busy and super connected (texting while walking; surfing the net while talking; dictating a novel into your mobile phone while training for a marathon while Instagramming) was fashionable, Parade wonders if a change is afoot.
In the past year or so, there have been signs.
A few of the metro newspaper columnists that Parade likes to read have written pieces about how they’ve taken a break from social media or how they’ve made a conscious effort to read a book a week as a way to relax.
A couple of articles last year talked about the growth in popularity of “dumb phones” (phones without the internet or all the other various extras) among people who started to feel uncomfortable about the way they were constantly distracted.
The humble backyard vegetable garden seems to be popular again, vinyl records have been brought back from the dead (an almost unthinkable shift in an age in which music is plentiful, cheap and available at the click of a button) and the term “digital detox” is popping up more and more.
In short, Parade wonders if all those who kept living simply, frugally and without digital distractions while the world changed around them might be about to look like prophets, rather than pariahs.
And it only took a couple of decades or so.
Slow down at afternoon tea
WHAT got Parade thinking about all that was an upcoming BooksPlus afternoon tea with author Brooke McAlary, an advocate for slowing down and finding the benefits in living with less.
The afternoon tea will be held on October 28 in the Piper Function Room at the Oxford Hotel.
Tickets are $25 and are available from BooksPlus. Bookings are essential.