Be Late for Something Day

 The minute I stumbled upon the fun holiday, Be Late for Something Day, I knew I was in for a deep dive down the rabbit hole. This holiday is celebrated every year on September 5th and has been around since 1956. Observers of Be Late for Something Day celebrate it by intentionally slowing down and avoiding the rush that is part of so many of our weekly grinds. I enjoyed learning about this holiday’s comical origin, and about a man called Les Waas, whose life was what legends are made of.  

Though you may have never heard of Les Waas, the creator of Be Late for Something Day, you may have heard of Mister Softee, the ice cream truck company. Les was the composer of the “Jingles and Chimes” tune that played on the trucks, as well as over 950 other jingles for advertisements during his lifetime. That alone impressed me; but, when I realized he was the founder and long-serving president of The Procrastinators’ Club of America, I belly laughed. “Half a million members in the US,” he claimed, “but only about five thousand have gotten around to signing up.” 

As you might imagine, this organization was passionate about putting off today what you could do tomorrow. (Past tense here since I have found no evidence of any current activity online, though they may just be slow in getting around to building their website.) Be Late for Something Day was established in 1956 with the purpose of encouraging people to slow down their busy schedules and, for one day, to stop rushing through life. What’s funny to me is that this was 70 years ago—a good 50+ years before Apple released the first iPhone! While a part of me understands that the Procrastinator’s Club is a tongue in cheek phenomenon, I also wonder if there was a kernel of truth in the creation of this holiday.  It seems to me that more and more people are questioning the hustle culture lifestyle. I’ve even read that Gen Z’ers are eschewing modern technology for simple tools like iPod Shuffles they’re finding on Ebay! 

A little more on Les, the man behind the holiday. Les lived quite a full life, starting as a metal worker in the Navy Yard, serving as a B-52 bomber pilot in WWII, then banging out jingles on his xylophone that are still recognizable to this day. Les lived to be 94 years old and even had some fun with his own funeral. He recorded a self-eulogy that was played when he died on April 19, 2016, never missing an opportunity to pass on some of his wisdom about taking time to enjoy life.

I have been intentionally slowing down quite a bit this summer, mainly by swapping my car for a bike! Originally, my idea was to avoid the rising gas prices and build exercise into my routine. Since I’ve been riding though, I’ve found it to be so much more beneficial than I had expected. It has forced me to slow down. My former 12-minute car commute now requires 40-50 minutes of cycling, but I honestly wouldn’t trade it for how much gratitude it has brought into my life. Slowing down has given me the gift of noticing the world around me. Feeling the breeze on a downhill coast, hearing the birds in the early morning, smelling fresh-cut grass, waving to other cyclists (it’s a thing), seeing the same dogs on their morning walks every day, noticing hibiscus flowers poking over a garden fence that weren’t there the day before.  I gladly trade these 90 minutes a day to feel more connected, grateful, and content. And despite the longer commute, I’ve only been late once!

How will you celebrate Be Late for Something Day? Will you take the longer route to your destination? Sit down and enjoy a second cup of coffee before rushing off to an appointment? Will you move something from your to-do list to tomorrow so that you can enjoy today? I encourage you to take a page out of Les Waas’s book.

If you find yourself to be always in a rush, you might want to take a look at this list of materials about learning to slow down. Take a breath, take your time, slow down, and be late for something! The world will keep on turning. 

Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

"In July 2013, Oliver Sacks turned eighty and wrote a piece in The New York Times about the prospect of old age and the freedom he envisioned for himself in binding together the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime. Eighteen months later, he was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer--which he announced publicly in another piece in The New York Times. Gratitude is Sacks's meditation on why life continued to enthrall him even as he faced the all-too-close presence of his own death, and how to live out the months that remained in the richest and deepest way possible."

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré

“A challenging take on the cult of speed, as well as a corrective look at how people can approach their lives with new understanding, this book uncovers an international movement of those dedicated to slowing down and enjoying a fuller, richer life.”

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

“When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for personal branding, and products to be monetized, nothing can be quite so radical as...doing nothing. Here, Jenny Odell sends up a flare from the heart of Silicon Valley, delivering an action plan to resist capitalist narratives of productivity and techno-determinism, and to become more meaningfully connected in the process.”

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport

"The author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work offers a philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. History's most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to transform modern jobs. Drawing from research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of thinkers from Galileo and Isaac Newton to Jane Austen and Georgia O'Keefe, Newport lays out the key principles of ‘slow productivity’ and provides step-by-step advice for workers to replace the standard notion of productivity with a slower, more humane alternative."

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

"As a leading researcher in the field of biology, Robin Wall Kimmerer understands the delicate state of our world. But as an active member of the Potawatomi nation, she senses and relates to the world through a way of knowing far older than any science. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she intertwines these two modes of awareness--the analytic and the emotional, the scientific and the cultural--to ultimately reveal a path toward healing the rift that grows between people and nature. The woven essays that construct this book bring people back into conversation with all that is green and growing; a universe that never stopped speaking to us, even when we forgot how to listen."

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters 

“Perhaps more responsible than anyone for the revolution in the way we eat, cook, and think about food, Alice Waters has ‘single-handedly chang[ed] the American palate’ according to the New York Times. Her simple but inventive dishes focus on a passion for flavor and a reverence for locally produced, seasonal foods.”

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey

“In Rest is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough.”

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

“A lively philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life.”

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer

“Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There's never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still.”

Laziness Does Not Exist: A Defense of the Exhausted, Exploited, and Overworked by Devon Price

“A social psychologist uncovers the psychological basis of the ‘laziness lie,’ which originated with the Puritans and has ultimately created blurred boundaries between work and life with modern technologies and offers advice for not succumbing to societal pressure to ‘do more.’”

Caitlyn, Acquisitions and Cataloging