Over the past week or so I have been mulling over an article in the NY Times by Arlie Hochschild, titled ‘The State of Families, Class and Culture.” Citing various studies about the American state of mind, Hochschild describes our fast, restless and reckless American society where we buy quickly and often indiscriminately, and where we discard things rapidly, soon after we have acquired them.

This mentality lends itself, Hochschild figures, to the American phenomenon of high divorce rates and multiple relationships.  We speed date, get into relationships, and then break up, in a faster and faster cycle of discontent. In things and in relationships, we are always seeking the next new thing.

In response to Fast Food, we have the Slow Food movement.  In response to Hurried Parenting, we have the Slow Parenting movement.  Maybe, Hochschild proposes, we need a Slow Love movement to balance the American tendency towards having “a curiously consumerist approach to love.”

It does seem true that it is harder and harder to slow down (we are all so busy) and that this tendency towards speed and rushing invades many facets of life, love including.