A glimpse of something different from what we normally see

Joan Miro - Paseo a la ciudad 

In "Saving Time," Jenny Odell writes 

Perhaps this is precisely what Pieper meant with his "vertical" time - maybe it is vertical not just in that it's the opposite of horizontal, but also in that it reaches deep into the recess of history even as it stretches up toward an infinite and utopian ideal.  If the concept of leisure has any utility, for me it has to be this: an interruption, an apprehension, a glimpse both of the truth and of something completely different from what we normally see.  This leisure is alien not just to the world of work, but also to the habitual, everyday world. Given the opportunity to slow down, what I find is not slowness per se, but simply what has been happening all along, just outside my perception. (106) 

The author referenced is Josef Pier, Leisure, the Bassis fo Culture (2015)- first published in German in 1948.

Three interesting points here.  The first is Pieper's concept of horizontal and vertical time... which is related to my thinking on digital and analog hiking -- the notion that at any moment you can walk perpendicular to the path... to find infinite paths.  It seems as though Odell is saying that time is also thick with past and present (all the way through geological time).  This reminds me, too, of the Fermor quote about "festival time."

Second, Odell is using the concept of leisure as a kind of resistance to the normal way of viewing time -- the "hegemony" that interprets time as a certain thing and values certain things which help condition what "we normally see."  Leisure can be a "counterforce" (my word) to that.  But counterforce is too strong a word.  This resonates with me; I feel so many 'normal' ways of doing things are .... distasteful and wasteful and unimportant.

Third, a beautiful and clear image for me is the value of slowness is capturing the things that are always happening... but "just outside of perception."  This suggests the treasures that await with leisure.

Her idea of 'leisure' has less to do with 'not working' and more to do with a different than normal way of being.... normal means the 'normal way that society does things' and -- probably -- normal way that you have been habituated to doing things.