Slowing things down

Slowing things down and resisting our gut feelings can get us through the most difficult crises.

On October 15, 1962, John F. Kennedy woke up to a dramatically changed world.

While he’d been sleeping, the CIA had identified Soviet nuclear missile sites being constructed in Cuba, less than a hundred miles from the American coast. Suddenly, America was threatened with the possibility of nuclear attack.

It was a time of immense pressure for Kennedy, who knew that if the Soviet provocation spiraled into war, at least seventy million people would likely die in the initial nuclear strikes.

The advice from his advisers was clear and totally instinctual: Aggression must be met with greater aggression, so the missile sites had to be destroyed. The problem was that if this approach failed, it would trigger a catastrophic nuclear war.

The thirteen days that followed have come to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And despite all that was at stake, Kennedy was able to bear the immense weight on his shoulders. And how was he able to think clearly and navigate the crisis successfully?

First, Kennedy slowed things down. Instead of rushing into a decision, he stayed reflective. His handwritten notes from the time are evidence of a kind of meditative process at work. On page after page, he wrote “Missile. Missile. Missile.” or “Leaders. Leaders. Leaders.” On one pad, he drew two sailboats, calmly sailing.

Without the time to sail himself, Kennedy instead swam in the White House pool to give himself space to think. He also sought peace and solitude in the Rose Garden; later, he even thanked the resident gardener for her contribution to solving the crisis.

Eventually, he announced a blockade of Cuba. It didn’t resolve the crisis, but Kennedy had decided that a swift outcome was less important than making sure his opposite number, Soviet president Nikita Kruschev, also had time and space to think.

And think Kruschev did. Eleven days after the crisis began, the Soviet leader wrote to Kennedy. If leaders do not display statesmanlike wisdom, he wrote, they will clash, bringing mutual annihilation. The crisis was over, and negotiations over the removal of missiles began.

Kennedy had helped pull the world back from a global cataclysm. Not through a chest-beating show of strength, or the threat of aggression, but through finding the time and space – the stillness – to think his options through and choose the wisest course.