Many years ago, I realized my own shortcomings, as this article said. Awareness and accurate explanation are two different things, and it is a blessing to be able to clearly understand your predicament.
Before sharing this article, there is such a question that everyone needs to think about:
If you are one of the protagonists in the tortoise-hare race, who do you think you are and why?
If there is an answer, let's follow this article to see if the views are consistent. Do you still have your opinion after reading the article?
Note: Because the understanding of Festina lente in the text changes with the author's experience, I decided to keep Festina lente in the original text, and I will indicate the meaning in this part.
Translation: Ys
I learned the Latin word "Festina lente" more than 20 years ago (meaning: calmly deal with emergencies).
At that time, I worked in a publishing house. Although it is a small company, even colleagues across departments are very kind. I was the editor of a magazine, and I often chatted with people from book publishing houses.
Once, K of the publishing department said with a smile, "A teacher always wrote' Festina Lente' at the end of a postcard, and always felt scolded."
Shortly after I left school, I didn't understand the meaning of this sentence when I first heard it. I didn't know that Festina lente is a famous Latin proverb until I asked.
K specifically looked up this sentence and told me it was Sweetnius.
The teacher mentioned by K is Dr. Hideyoshi Tanaka, a professor of western classics at Kyoto University.
This doctor is the author of classical grammar in that publishing house. At that time, he was preparing the revised edition, so he often contacted Miss K as the person in charge. Every time, I will definitely write the Latin "Festina lente" (meaning: slow and fast) at the end. K thought it was interesting, but I was surprised.
When I was young, I didn't find such complaints interesting at all. Get things done quickly, and I always think that if you say "Festina lente" (meaning: hurry up slowly), only elderly people will say it and despise it.
K is also very young and should not find it interesting.
"I wrote a reply hoping to be faster, and the result was Festina lente (meaning: slowly and quickly). What to do so quickly is like ridicule. "
On the contrary, later the revised draft came out, and a postcard asking' Why hasn't it been changed yet' came. Of course, it will definitely end with' Festina lente' (meaning: take your time). It's like asking why you grind it. In fact, this is also a very useful sentence-K said with deep feelings.
After 10 years, once, I suddenly realized the profound meaning of "Festina lente". I often think of this sentence in my daily life. I'm ashamed, too. I took this sentence as a boring lesson.
In other words, when you grow up, you will gradually understand. Although people say that teenagers like lessons, many people don't learn them.
It was at this time that fairy tales became interesting.
I should have heard the story of "the tortoise and the rabbit race" when I was in primary school. And sang a song adapted from this story. At that time, however, it was simply regarded as the story of rabbits and turtles. Although I understand that this story is also applicable to people's world, I never thought that it actually revealed the truth of people's lifestyle.
Anyway, let's sleep here for a while. Put the hard part aside. It was not until the tortoise overtook it that the rabbit began to worry. In human society, there are also many rabbits sleeping. Children are taught this truth from an early age, and they won't understand it. They are too young to understand it.
The sentence "Festina lente" is difficult for even a 30-year-old young man to fully understand. The stories and songs of rabbits and turtles have no influence on children.
If you ask the child who sings this song, is it better to be a rabbit or a turtle? Everyone replied that it was a turtle. Everyone knows the answer, but everyone always tries to be a rabbit. That's right. It's no use teaching again.
If the rabbit is a genius, the tortoise is a fool. As long as the tortoise doesn't do well in the exam, it is easy to be labeled as a "poor student"
Turtles run slowly, usually because people only look at the distance they have traveled in a short time. If the tortoise and the rabbit race at the same time, it is obvious that the rabbit will run further.
Everyone ignores that the working hours of rabbits and turtles are different. The rabbit will have a rest after running. The tortoise didn't rest, but moved on. On the speed of the foot, it only refers to the unit time. If someone can go further, it's not a matter of how fast their feet are.
Our life will come to an end. The anxiety of grinding your feet and achieving nothing has always been there. So, it's better to be a rabbit.
Although people are inherently mortal, life is sometimes unexpectedly long. At this time, although the rabbit-type life has the benefits of rabbit-type life, it has to start to change into a durable turtle-type life.
Because of the prolonged life span, people have to start thinking about whether the life of rabbits or turtles is better. Of course, turtle life was originally based on an aging society.
Rabbit life, before the age of 55, just sprint blindly, but I don't know how to face the remaining 20 years after the age of 55, maybe 15. At this time, the rabbit-type people began to stir.
For those who take "hurry and hurry" as their motto, walk slowly.
After reading the Collection of Proverbs, I found that there used to be so many proverbs telling people to slow down.
Don't be afraid to walk slowly. (China)
Walk slowly, and you will go far. (Italy)
The more anxious, the slower. (Italy)
If you are in a hurry, take the ancient road. (Thailand)
Walking slowly is the real progress. (France)
Even being late is better than doing nothing. (Germany)
The more anxious you are, the worse you can do. (France)
In Japan, you know-the more anxious you are, the more you stand still (that is, haste makes waste). Schopenhauer once said: People who think spontaneously usually come to the same conclusion. It is amazing that proverbs can transcend time and society and achieve amazing consistency.
Festina lente, from the Roman writer Sweetnius. It is amazing that a sentence of more than two thousand years is still circulating today. In other places, there is a similar saying that "haste makes waste". Although I don't know who said it when and where, it is still passed on by word of mouth, which is similar to what Sweetnius said. This is also a very amazing thing.
It takes courage to do it slowly. Without self-confidence, it is difficult to brake yourself who is about to run.
People say, don't talk in front of people. But when you climb onto the platform, you usually lose your normal thinking. In Kan Kan, people always can't be honest and start to talk glibly. Once this happens, nothing can be undone. For the British, speaking loudly will drive away wisdom. To this end, it is best to speak in a low voice and not make a loud noise in the National Assembly Hall.
Even if you don't speak loudly, your speech speed is not good, especially when you want to talk too much. Think carefully and speak slowly, but you can express more.
Although it is urgent and slow, it is contradictory.
This doesn't mean you can procrastinate on purpose, but you need to spend more time. Hurry is to get better results. The corresponding small goals need to be taken slowly, calmly and unhurriedly.
When you are busy, you are often not careful enough and go out in a panic. After a while, I found out: "Hey? What the hell! " Only to find that it was forgotten again. Important things are always forgotten.
No matter how anxious you are, there is nothing you can do. Go back and get it if you want to cry without tears. So, it was almost late, and now it's even later. This kind of thing wouldn't have happened if I had checked it carefully at the beginning, but I just didn't expect it at that time. You don't know until you experience it. It is not enough to experience the same thing over and over again. Anyway, the benefits of "haste makes waste" should be clear, but it will not change at all.
"Festina lente" (meaning: calmly responding to emergencies) is an ideal and a goal in plain English. It is difficult for ordinary people to do this even if they understand it. After making the same mistakes again and again, they began to give up change.
This reminds me of Mori Yoshiro's words.
It's a word from Mr. Ou to the children. No matter how troublesome things are, you will solve them one by one. When the winding thread cannot be untied, don't untie it without thinking. Find one side of the line first and untie it a little.
Generally, it will become more and more difficult to understand when you see a messy thread and pull it excitedly. There is a lot of work. I don't know where to start.
In other words, in a chaotic state, people usually forget to do it slowly. If the result is not satisfactory, you will be happy in vain.
I wonder if such a thing can make people accumulate some experience slowly. Perhaps this is the reason why the proverb "haste makes waste" was born all over the world.
Among many proverbs, "Festina lente" as the earliest word is very precious.
-End-
I don't have any special skills and I don't have anything I particularly like to do. My daily anxiety probably comes from doing nothing and having no goals. Actually, I am also a rabbit. When I work around, sometimes I am busy and sometimes I am anxious.
I quit my last job and took a rest for about 8 months. I am exhausted, but I am actually crushed by life. That job was very busy for a while, and I worked overtime until late every day to go home. The salary has not increased much, and the working ability has not improved. There are many useless people, and the circle has not become bigger, but people are more than ten times tired. I have been telling myself that I should suffer when I was young, but I often doubt whether this is correct.
Life at that time was also very bad. I have no choice in my work and life, just because life makes me desperate. Family and friends are terrible. I often work overtime to walk home late at night, not to increase my exercise, but to vent my animal nature.
After the busiest half year, I decided to resign. Start from scratch and rebuild my world bit by bit.
I did a lot of things at that time. Take your time. As long as I make a little progress every day, I will be satisfied. The mentality must be good, no matter what needs to be cultivated by daily patience.
Although the tortoise climbs slowly, it is important to persevere. Maybe I'm a rabbit now, but I'm not impatient and I don't give up. I can get closer to the life of a tortoise.
In fact, I am not a firm person. Many decisions I made were made with great enthusiasm, but I am glad that I made great enthusiasm and saw a wide enough world in various senses. In terms of events, from rabbits to turtles, my decision is only because of myself.
In the third grade, you can only hear the voice that advises you to give up. It is easy to give up, and it is also easy to live with the great flow of society. But this only applies to the downstream on a calm day. No one knows which comes first, tomorrow or the accident. Maybe tomorrow is the end of the rabbit's life.
It's never too late to start now, earlier than any time in the future. That's why I started and insisted. Sometimes faith is more important than anything else.
And, of course, loneliness. It is also important not to give up because you don't understand loneliness.
I suddenly remembered an article I read in a magazine when I was in grade three. There was a sentence in it that always impressed me deeply. This article is about a little girl who is not very clever. All the children laughed at her clumsiness. Only her mother inspired her to say: You are a hyacinthus orientalis, and when it blooms, it will be the best one.
Since then, I have been encouraging myself in this way. Maybe at that time, I knew the meaning of Festina lente, but I was lost in my busy life.
Growth will never be smooth sailing, so I should allow some abandonment. For example, I have been lazy recently. But what are you afraid of? As long as the direction is right, it is good to be slow but steady.