Nick’s Laws of Inverse Logic: Law Number One

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Nick’s Laws of Inverse Logic:
(c) by Nick Grimshawe

Law # 1: When in a hurry, slow down. Or, when you are in a hurry a train will always cross your path.

I pride myself (there, right there is the problem—pride) on understanding the toll our high paced society is having on the human spirit. I’ve written about the importance of slowing down and finding solitude. Yet the other morning, with a drive into the (big) city and the need to pick-up a co-worker and arrive on time, I felt the need for speed pushing on me.

Of course as hurry would have it, I left the house five minutes late before I even began. I found myself glancing at my dash board clock more than the speedometer. I cleared by first time obstacle, the Mission Bridge with ease. But as I came down off the ridge onto my normal commuter route, the railroad crossing light began to flash. Briefly, I even considered running the lights, but fortunately all the times I have condemned others showing such utter stupidity caused me to put on the breaks and take my medicine, and count train cars.

While I sat idling I realized that if I carried on like this all the way to my down town meeting, I would certainly arrive late, exhausted from the commute and oozing negative vibes about the state of traffic in Vancouver.

As all this went through my head while I craned by next to see down the track to spot the last car in this very long train, I experience an ah ha! moment. Giving myself a sore neck straining, to see a car that would arrive in its own good time whether I watched for it or not: made no sense. With effort I turned my head to watch the train going away from me. I was tempted to look back in the opposite direction just for a peek to see if the final car was in view yet, but I steadfastly resisted.

The last freight car sped by in no time and I resumed my journey in a very different frame of mind.

I resolved to slow down.

I recalled a quote I had recently posted on these pages:

When you drink tea, just drink tea .Enjoy drinking your tea.Please don’t drink your suffering, your despair, your projects. This is very important. Otherwise you can’t nourish yourself.”
Source: The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh

For the rest of the journey I would just drink my tea. I looked out the window to enjoy the beautiful summer countryside. On the freeway, I stayed in the slow lane, and focused on just driving my car. I didn’t listen to the radio which meant I missed those incessant traffic updates about how bad the traffic is up ahead. (I turned the car radio off several weeks ago and have not turned it back on since and I don’t miss it at all.)

Despite the train I arrived to pick-up my co-worker right on time.

As my co-worker got into the car, after the morning greetings, I said, “We should just make it in time.”

After that I paid no attention to the time. I enjoyed the drive in, chatting with my co-worker as we breezed along.

Soon the high-rise towers appeared on the horizon, and before we knew it we were amid the towers of glass, sparkling in the sunlight.

“Looks like we’re early, we have time to go have a Starbucks.”

We arrived downtown 40 minutes early!

On our drive down I explained my First Law of Inverse Logic to my co-worker who found the whole idea amusing but true.

So there you have it, proof that my First Law of Inverse Logic works.

When in a hurry, slow down!

Nick Grimshawe

Logic, Laws, Speed, Hurry, High+paced, human+spirit, solitude, slow+lane, inspirational+article, Starbucks,

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