Sloughing

Mick Herron’s book, Slow Horses, begins, “Let us be clear about this much at least: Slough House is not in Slough [a town just outside of London], nor is it a house.” Slough House, rather, is an organizational unit where British MI5 (the United Kingdom’s Secret Service) agents are exiled after they fumble an important assignment. These un-well-regarded agents are known as “slow horses”, and Slough House is a place where the excitement and importance of national security duties have been replaced with humdrummery. Boring work. Inconsequential tasks. Mental abuse from their boss, Jackson Lamb, (played in the TV series by the brilliant Gary Oldman).

As these fictional (and, who knows, perhaps non-fictional) situations seem to evolve, this unlikely group of (well, I’ll just say it) losers, become involved in high-stakes predicaments that threaten the mothership, Great Britain herself.  And there, these organizational refugees, who are often talented people who happened to have had misfortune hit them in the middle of their promising careers, do the James Bond thing and find a way to save the world as we know it. They aren’t losers after all (none of us are, actually, y’know) but despite a bit of bad luck or a poor decision or whatnot found themselves carrying the burden of banishment to Slough House.

Slow Horses is the first book in Herron’s Slough House series of, so far, eight novels and more novellas. It’s been made, as alluded to above, into a television series, which is where my wife Lana, and I discovered it. We have relished it. In addition to Oldham, there are familiar actors like Jonathan Pryce and Kristin Scott Thomas, and a host of interesting characters. We’ve seen the two seasons of the show which are available, and the series has been renewed for two additional seasons. So far. I’m betting this series will continue for as long as Oldman agrees to be in it.

Slough House, I think, is a takeoff on the word slough which, according to Merriam-Webster, means “a place of deep mud or mire,” and swamp or backwater. Synonyms include bog, gulch, and bottomland. But perhaps the author was referring to the other definitions of slough which is “to shed or cast off,” “to cast off one’s skin,” to separate dead from living tissue, and to “crumble slowly and fall away.” The noun means the cast-off skin of a snake or something shed or cast off.  It can mean getting rid of something unwanted, like a bad secret agent reputation or like discarding a losing card in the game of bridge.

Snakes shed their skins two to four times a year though sometimes as often as once a month. Over time, instead of shedding individual skin cells, like we do, they outgrow their skin, and that is when they “slough it off” in one piece. Humans, on the other hand, lose 200 million skin cells every hour. Over a 24-hour day, we lose around five thousand million skin cells. That’s right. 5,000,000,000 of those dead, little, epidermal flakes.

But that’s not all. Throughout our entire bodies we replace around 330 billion cells every day. We have about 30 trillion human cells, all told. Some of our cells last quite a long time - your muscle cells might last 30-70 years, and some in the brain, heart, and eyes last a lifetime. Still, inside your body cells are changing out fast. In fact, “In 80 to 100 days, 30 trillion will have replenished—the equivalent of a new you” (Fischetti & Christiansen, 2021).

We do this without having to even think about it. Our bodies are evolutionary marvels.

The equivalent of a new me in just a few months.

Wouldn’t that just be da bomb? 

People dream of becoming 'the new me'; advertisements claim their products can do it for you.

But it’s not a new me, really, is it? Parts of my body are more durable. And somehow my creaky joints don’t feel all that rejuvenated. And I still have all sorts of other baggage that needs sloughing.

Much of our body runs itself, from shedding billions of cells to the beat of our hearts and breathing. We do have considerable ability to influence it though, don’t we? We can slow our heart rate and breathing or speed them up. We can extend our lives by taking care of ourselves or shorten them through abuse or neglect. We may not be able to live without pain, but we can avoid or mitigate what could cause us to have pain to some extent. We can’t control our cell production/elimination cycle, but we do have considerable ability to influence all sorts of bodily functions for better or worse.

The same is true of the quality of our emotional, cognitive, and spiritual lives, and even our own identity. Much is out of our hands, but much is within our influence and, gradually, the choices we make daily will have a significant long-term effect on our quality of life. The way we live our lives is not the same as this continuous, without thinking, physical sloughing process, but it is analogous.

We can’t slough our skin like a snake does, just like the characters assigned to Slough House can’t shed their reputations in one fell “save the world as we know it” heroic deed. (It seems the same characters are still in Slough House in the second season, after a considerable triumph in the first). We can't change the depth of us immediately, but we can slowly, intentionally, create a modified, more healthy us.

If we care to do that.  If you are pretty happy with yourself and your trajectory right now, this is probably all blather. Skip out of here and head over to the guitar. Or the trail. Or to whatever brings you joy.

But...if there are a few things that would/could make a big difference in your life, consider this. James Clear, in his terrific book, Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy And Proven Way To Build Good Habits And Break Bad Ones, said, “If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of tiny gains or tiny losses, and see how your daily choices will compound ten or twenty years down the line” (p. 18). Which tells us that the sooner we start and the longer we continue, the more significant the results will be.

It takes time and persistence and will, but.... "You can do this hard thing," as the marvelous Carrie Newcomer sings.

That goes for writing, exercising, learning a language, becoming more productive, contemplative practice, and becoming better in our relationships with others.

The habits of a deep and meaningful life compound over time, just like saving money.

This compounding effect is such an excellent opportunity for young people, who have oodles of time to shape their lives, but it can also make a huge difference for those of us in later life. We may not have forty or fifty years to build an important habit and to reap its rewards, but if we start now we can make a meaningfully positive difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Of course, if good habits can grow over time, so can bad habits. Charles Duhigg, in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business, said,

“…habits emerge without our permission. Studies indicate that families don’t intend to eat fast food on a regular basis. What happens is that a once a month pattern slowly becomes once a week, and then twice a week—as the cues and rewards create a habit—until the kids are consuming an unhealthy amount of hamburgers and fries” (p. 26). This Duhigg, said is “the habit loop” (p. 26).

In this sense, then, have considerable ability to decide and to create our own destiny through the habits, routines, practices, and disciplines we choose; or we turn our future over to chance, and the either good or bad we find ourselves in that results. We are, after all, at this very moment the product of the environment, what we were born with, and the choices we have made.   

We may not be able to slough our whole skin, but we might be surprised how much we might be able to do with ourselves if we put enough skin in the game.

Sources/Resources

(11-29-16), New insights into skin cells could explain why our skin doesn't leak, Science Daily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161129114910.htm. (Retrieved 2-3-23)

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: tiny changes, remarkable results: an easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Duhigg, C. (2014). Power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business. Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Fischetti, M, and Christiansen, J., (4-1-21). Our Bodies Replace Billions of Cells Every Day, Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-bodies-replace-billions-of-cells-every-day/ (Retrieved 2-3-23)

Merriam-Webster, Slough, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slough, (retrieved 2-5-23)

Herron, M. (2010). Slow horses (1st US ed.). Soho Constable. 

Pacey, Paddy (10-33-22). Snakes Shedding Their Skins (or Moulting or Sloughing), Whole Earth, https://wholeeartheducation.com/snakes-shedding-skin/ (Retrieved 2-3-23)

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Carrie Newcomer:  https://www.carrienewcomer.com/