Show us the meaning of haste...

[Boromir88]

Now everything is about doing things quickly...Did you know you could "get great abs in under 12 minutes!" or "make amazing meals in 5 minutes!" or there are now even "drive-up divorce windows."

As we continue to get more and more technologically advanced, and more and more promised "time saving" devices come to the public, people continue to say they wish they had "more time on their hands." Are we really saving time for ourselves, or just giving up more time so we can complete more things, creating more trouble, and more stress for ourselves.

It seems like we have a paradox. Does wanting to get things done "fast" truly work, or is it a delusion? What about the quality doing things "fast?"

Professor Wood (in: Tolkien's Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil in Tree of Tales Tolkien, Literature, and Theology) compared the Ring's invisibility to speed, and more about Tolkien's thoughts about getting things done quickly:

For Tolkien, all good and lasting things are created slowly and communally, with considerable time lapsing between their conception and their completion......Whether in the making of meals or books, in marriages or friendships, in mastering skills or developing convictions, all worthy things flourish and endure to the extent that they take shape gradually, without recourse to short-cuts, especially to the time-crunching means made available by our late-modern kind of invisibility -namely, technological instantaneity.

I was reminded of George Sayer's comments on how Lewis was able to finish Narnia with good speed, compared to Tolkien's much longer, time-consuming process:

His condemnation was so severe that one suspects he envied the speed with which Jack wrote and compared it with his own laborious method of composition.~Jack; A life of C.S. Lewis: Into Narnia

So, my question is "What is the meaning of haste"? Is wanting to get things done speedily necessarily evil? Afterall, it seemed like Gandalf was in need of haste much of the time, constantly running around Middle-earth. Theoden was in need of haste to get to Gondor.

However, time and again "speed" is connected with evil, or something bad. Morgoth, Sauron, Boromir, Saruman...etc are all hasty, rash, and impatient. And one of my favorite lines in all the books warns about taking short-cuts:

"Shortcuts make delays, but inns make longer ones."

Is wanting to get things done fast, in and of itself evil? Is it then inferior to anything that takes a long, and laborious process to form? Or is there another factor involved, that puts a negative connotation behind being "hasty?"

[Bêthberry]

"I almost feel like I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty. . . . Hrum, Hoom. . . . very odd indeed! Do not be hasty, that is my motto. . . . Not so hasty. And I am doing the asking. You are in my country."

Said by one who put down some roots, you might say.

[Lalwendë]

We were talking about this at work last week, about what it was like in the days before computers. A Minister would want an answer writing for a PQ and it would have to be sent up by van on a memo, and would have to go back the same way, after first paying a visit to the typing pool of course. But now we get an e-mail and we have to write it before yesterday. But it doesn't mean we do more of them or they are any better, they just get answered more quickly.

Why is it important to be so speedy? It's as though we must have everything NOW. And the more we want everything NOW the more stressed we become as we try to achieve that, and so the cycle continues. In fact now, we even carry our work around with us on these Blackberry things, and people must work 24/7 so you can order a new pair of socks at 3am to be delivered by teatime next day.

Enough ruminating though, I must get a shift on and answer this...

I'm not sure that Tolkien does think taking things slowly is the right way all of the time, as we see Gandalf borrowing the Red Rum of Middle-earth in order to get about as quickly as possible, and the Rohirrim rushing off towards Gondor when they must, and Frodo is rushed away from Bag End quite quickly after months of procrastination. Even Treebeard was shown that his slowness wasn't always appropriate and was roused to action.

I think Tolkien sought to show us that we shouldn't be hasty in making decisions, but we should also not procrastinate when action is needed. A balanced view from him as ever.

[Boromir88]

I think Tolkien sought to show us that we shouldn't be hasty in making decisions, but we should also not procrastinate when action is needed.~Lal

Interesting and obviously Gandalf wasn't sent to Middle-earth to laze around and smoke pipe-weed with Hobbits all the time. The Istari were sent with a mission, and an expectation to complete it. Fast action seems to demand fast reaction.

Also it seems like impatience is another factor here. Compare Faramir who said Boromir was "rash" and "ever anxious" for the Victory of Gondor. It's then no secret he was drawn to the Ring which promised a speedy solution; yet a superficial one. To Faramir who does express the same love and desire for Gondor's victory, but is much more thoughtful and patient. Then we have Denethor who also a "thinker" and "loreman" like Faramir, however it appears he does procrastinate. While he does get Gondor's defenses set up Gandalf remarks that the wall around Pelennor was "late" in being rebuilt, Denethor calls for Rohan's aid and armies from the fiefdoms - late.

It's like you have on one end, someone who acts but doesn't think. The other someone who thinks, but acts late. And in the middle - Faramir - the ideal.

Edit: Oh Lal, and if I recall Aragorn's decision to reveal himself in the palantir was to get Sauron to act hastily and attack Gondor before he wanted to.

Bethberry, that reminds me of Gandalf's words to Aragorn, when Aragorn tried to usurp Theoden's will (in refusing to give up Anduril): "A King will have his way in his own hall." (paraphrasing from The King of the Golden Hall). Then that old, washed up, quack doesn't even hand over his own staff!

[Galadriel55]

There is a difference between acting fast and acting hastily, if you get what I mean.

Reminds me of a line I read elsewhere: "There is the long-short way, and the short-long way."

As for short-cuts... trying on purpose to be hasty? Aragorn's trip to the Paths of the Dead was not hasty in that sense. Trying to make life easier? It means developing new things, which isn't always bad (eg I can't say that rubbing two sticks together is better that having a box of matches with you.)