1002: Secular and Inconsolable

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Secular and Inconsolable by Noah Blaustein. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, Major writes… “Some mornings I wake and say, “Today is the day I will turn off the phone. I will ignore alerts to meetings. I will not open the laptop. Today I’ll disregard all that beckons — coworkers, friends, family, pets too.” But of course… I hop up, brew coffee, feed the dog, sharpen some pencils, and get to work answering emails. For those, like me, like most everyone, I’d guess, who struggle to achieve work-life balance, playing hooky should be a national holiday. Just picture it: scores of us abandoning our desks, heading to nearby parks or movie theaters, beaches, or libraries. Can you see it, a nation basking in a self-contained bubble of condoned indolence?”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.
0:05.0	And this is the slowdown.
0:22.0	Some mornings I wake and say,
0:22.5	Today is the day I will turn off the phone.
0:25.5	I will ignore alerts to meetings.
0:28.5	I will not open the laptop.
0:31.5	Today, I'll disregard all that beckons, coworkers, friends, family, pets too. But of course, I hop up, brew coffee, feed the dog, sharpen some pencils, and get to work answering
0:50.3	emails.
0:52.2	For those, like me, like most everyone I'd guess, who struggled to achieve
0:58.6	work-life balance, playing hooky should be a national holiday. Just picture it. Scores of us
1:07.2	abandoning our desks, heading to nearby parks, or movie theaters, beaches, or libraries. parks or
1:15.0	libraries libraries.
1:16.0	Can you see it?
1:18.0	A nation basking in a self-contained bubble of condoned
1:22.0	indolence.
1:25.0	Neither can I.
1:27.0	Last month, I was forced to slow down, so to speak,
1:32.0	and did not like it.
1:34.2	While biking to a meeting, I was struck by a car.
1:38.2	The driver signaled left, but abruptly steered toward an available parking spot on the right.
1:45.0	I went down hard.
1:47.0	I emerged with a severely bruised shoulder, broken wrist and a braised elbow.
	...

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