Distraction

Distraction

            It’s rampant in our society. We live in a colorful, noisy and often fragrant world that captures our attention. It is a planned attack on our senses. We have new diseases and medical professions to deal with the outbreak of distractions in the form of attention deficits. It seems somehow related to the outbreaks of autism, video games, multi-tasking and the growing need for pointless, tasteless information. The word Google itself boggles and distracts, while it represents an incredible source of value, especially money. The massive amount of trivia and spin doctors has cyberspace, book stores, educational outlets, waiting rooms, and my bookshelves filled with distractions. I myself am guilty of using clichéd, esoteric, urbane humor to distract.

            Distraction is addictive. It may be first cousin to procrastination (the disease of tomorrow), excuses (the only person who cares about excuses is the excuse-maker) and ‘whatever’ (the insidious disbelief in communicating what the “as is” is).

            

            I remember the movie The Point in the 1970’s. It is “an animated story of an unusual kingdom in which everything and everybody is pointed -- except for a young boy named Oblio. Despite his round head, Oblio has many friends. But an evil Count, jealous that Oblio is more popular than his own son, says that without a pointed head, Oblio is an outlaw. Along with his faithful dog Arrow, Oblio is exiled to the Pointless Forest. There, he has many fantastic experiences (including encounters with a three-headed man, giant bees, a tree in the leaf-selling business, and a good-humored old rock). From his adventures, Oblio learns that it is not at all necessary to be pointed to have a point in life.” (From IMDB.com)

         I am from that age that made outlaws heroes. It was an age and a movie that sensed that not everything needs a point. Yet in the forty years since the release of the movie, society has found points to such pointless activities as fun, stress freedom, meditating, random acts of kindness, often easing the constraints of the incantations of WIIFM (what’s in it for me). As often happens with wisdom, it gets subverted into its opposite. Or maybe the opposite exists and The Point just allowed distractions to grow, be acceptable and profitable then and run rampant.

         My point is: paying attention is our best investment, for only I can decide if there is a point or a distraction or a situation for paying attention.

         The challenge I love is to share  the lessons of paying attention.