Philosophical Musings of a Book Nerd

Well, this is a rather interesting Mr Men book because it pits two opposites up against each other: Mr Busy, who happens to be really, really fast and Mr Slow who, you guessed it, happens to be incredibly slow. Well, the book is focused on Mr Busy, but Mr Slow is also a major character in the book and it sort of goes to show how two opposites don't really need to be forced to do what the other wants to do. It seems as if they are both friends, but the problem is because Mr Busy is so fast Mr Slow just doesn't have enough time to catch up, in the end he looks for ways to get away from Mr Busy.

I guess the thing that I picked up with this book is that people aren't always the same, but also if we live life too fast we might end up missing a lot of it. Okay, that may not be the case because I am actually a lot like Mr Busy, I live life fast because there is so much to do, and no time to do it all in, that I want to cram as much of it in as possible. Actually, the invention of the digital camera and the smart phone is an absolute boon because I can rush through art galleries, take photos, and then when I wind down can actually appreciate the images I took. Okay, I do have to becareful because if I go too fast I end up taking photos that are basically crap, but fortunately quite a few of the museums around the world have digitised their art so if my photo is crap then I have a back up.

Like this Monet:

Anyway, this isn't a book about living life fast but rather a book about how many of us are actually quite different, which is something that I have only recently discovered. While I like to try and see as much as possible, and will rush through a museum exhibit taking a multitude of photos, the person that sits next to me at work isn't necessarily like that. In fact while I might be counting down that days for my next trip to a place I have never been to before she is counting down to the day she goes to a place she has been to a multitude of times before because she knows that she loves that place and doesn't need to always to go some place new.

Further more, the guy that I speak to on the phone everyday has no intention of leaving the country because his idea of fun is sitting on a jetty with a fishing rod with his mates. In fact he may never actually catch a fish but he doesn't care because catching fish isn't the objective of the exercise, but rather sitting on the jetty with his mates. In fact, while I would not consider myself a fisherman, I have come to understand people's obsession with fishing – it has nothing to do with catching fish and everything to do with wasting your time with friends. Okay, I'm a traveller, and I love to travel (just like my brother does) but not everybody is like that – sometimes people simply love sitting on a jetty, with friends, attempting to catch fish that aren't even there.