William Powers practices what he preaches.

When the incessant pressure of life, and work, and seemingly endless deadlines and schedules mount to the boiling point, some can cope, other cannot. But Powers, author, expert on sustainable development and what’s referred to as the global “Slow” movement, took it one step further.

He modified his life in support of a new paradigm .

Leaving years of doing development work world-wide, he settled for a season into a one-room cabin on No Name Creek North Carolina. He set for his goal reconnecting with the natural world and ultimately with his own humanity. His experiences there provided the source for his book “Twelve by Twelve” (New World Library 2010),

But, as with others attempting to live a purpose-filled, authentic life, the answers from that time in the woods, only served to incubate new questions. To wit: Was it possible to incorporate a lifestyle of simplicity, balance, and connection in one of the world most frenetic cities – New York.

Setting aside 80% of their belongings and a spacious 2,000 square foot Queens Townhouse, Power and his wife moved into a 350 square foot “micro-apartment” in Greenwich Village. In the heart of the “go-go beast”, as he calls it, they set to restructuring their lives to make time and room for less work , more freedom, more joy. Living slowly with the city speeding by, fueled the experiences documented in his latest work, “New Slow City – living simply in the world’s fastest city”(New World Library 2014)

The book is a treasure! I was hooked by the first few pages. Powers writes with clarity and intimacy of how his time unfolded – the triumphs, as well as the challenges and disappointments. His words introduce a host of complex, funny, and interesting characters who walked along with him on this path. There’s JT the skeptical student in his Sustainable Development Class at NYU. There’s William the Pigeon Guy of Washington Square. And, let me not leave out The Reverend Billy and the Choir of the Church of No Shopping – what a hoot!

Now I’m sitting here reviewing my notes from an evening’s interview with the author. How fortunate I was to share a friendly half hour with this quiet, and insightful man, while he was in the midst of a multi-city tour promoting “New Slow City”.

To begin our conversation I ask: “When you think of the word “slow” in relation to a lifestyle, what images come to mind?” The response: “Self-paced…as opposed to hierarchical needs – either societal or job-related. Enjoyment. Pleasure. Being in the present moment.” He pauses, then expands a bit. “To say that mindfulness is purely a spiritual practice is missing the point. Consider the French way of eating meals…being in the body, being with other people, not just carnal, but joyful!”

Staying away from the more obvious topics, I ask him to explore a bit a quote from Emile Durkheim used throughout the book: “You can get what you want, but you can’t always want what you want” Bill replies: “Wanting what we want – hard to know because we live in a very hierarchical society. Most politicians are men. People should demand a scale and system of organization that’s correct, balanced. It’s an illegitimate structure. Small percent running everything setting our goals for us. Society just keeps trying to justify their eco-cidal existence.”

I consider all the drive that’s focused on acquiring jobs, cars, vacations, houses, etc., etc., because we’ve been taught that we’re supposed to want those things.

Thinking about consumerism and how it impacts individuals and the world leads me to another inquiry about the title of a course he’s taught at NYC – “Sustainable Development”. Sort of sounds like an oxymoron to me. And “sustainable” has become a buzzword describing everything from flooring to hiking boots – a label perhaps to make us want to buy stuff so we can call ourselves mindful consumers.

In response Bill says: “ James Lovelock – originator of the Gaia theory – says we should not talk about sustainable development, but sustainable retreat. We all need to find our retreat. We are in an absolutely crazy time politically, with climate change, and so on, and you can have a lot of wealth, concentrated in a few hands or you can have democracy. You can’t have both. The unequal distribution is not only driving the economy, it’s driving US!”

Retreat – withdrawing, pulling back, becoming quiet and thoughtful. In the book Powers’ creates a peaceful place for he and his wife mid-city on “tar beach” – the asphalt patch atop their mid-city micro-home with only the sky above their head. I wonder, can anyone, anywhere create a “tar beach”, or at least a tar beach state of mind?. He says:”Tar beach is just that – tar – nothing special. So it can be anywhere you can be with yourself. Nothing to distract. For example: I’m here in this hotel on a busy strip mall and just before the interview I took a walk and behind the parking lot there’s gorgeous woods – trees, nature, animals. It’s wonderful.”

Lest there by too rosy a picture of his counterculture experiment, I ask if there was a particular moment in the New York Slow City experience when he thought: “I must be crazy. What WAS I thinking?”

Indeed, the challenges were there and weighed heavily at times. Powers talks about his “Rock Bottom”(literally) experience:

“There’s a lot of support in NYC for the 80 hour work week – not so much when your aim is to work 20 hours/week. Felt lonely. Felt unable to touch nature in a city that separates humans from the natural environment. Nature is almost seen as threatening, evil, scary.” He recounts being hounded by police when trying to touch the river with his toes. He adds;”NYC is organized around ego and commerce. When I hit Rock Bottom at the bottom of the Bronx River I felt like the only one not believing these doctrines of work a lot, stay on the work/spend treadmill, and consume.”

The act of diving into that muddy water was not meant to be self-destructive, only clarifying.

He cites Noam Chomsky’s pithy summary:”Whenever a large number of people believe a particular doctrine without questioning – you can be pretty sure it’s false.”

I promised Powers this was a blog, not “The Great American Novel”, and here I am, already over my 1,000 word limit, with so much more to share. But for now, I can only invite you to dive into “New Slow City” to make your own discoveries, and form your own questions.

As the author says:”Change – true change can only happen on a personal and community level. People are really happy to raise a banner for something, but the question is ‘Have you looked at your own life at all?’ Change something, anything. That’s the revolution.”

Peace – Judi England, RN, LMT, Kripalu Yoga Instructor – yogajudi@aol.com -11/24/14

About William Powers:

William Powers has worked for two decades in development aid and conservation in Latin America, Africa, and North America. From 2002 to 2004 he managed the community components of a project in the Bolivian Amazon that won a 2003 prize for environmental innovation from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. His essays and commentaries on global issues have appeared in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune and on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air. Powers has worked at the World Bank and holds international relations degrees from Brown and Georgetown. A third-generation New Yorker, Powers has also spent two decades exploring the American culture of speed and its alternatives in some fifty countries around the world. He has covered the subject in his four books and written about it in the Washington Post and the Atlantic. Powers is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and an adjunct faculty member at New York University. His website is www.williampowersbooks.com.

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