Focus

 

 “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business,” T.S. Eliot wrote in “East Coker.” 

I get a weekly email newsletter from the NYT called "Well." The topics are usually interesting and relevant. The subject this week was about our lack of focus, namely the distractions that prevent us from giving undivided attention to a task or goal. 

Here is an excerpt: 

"We tell ourselves that if we could just get off our devices, we could lock in. I find it amusing and slightly alarming to observe how my brain is online even when I’m not. When my thoughts reach an impasse or my memory glitches, my brain assumes a Google search is impending, help is on the way. There’s a pause where my brain wants to hand off the baton to the machine. When the machine isn’t there, there’s static before the brain, crackling back to life, remembers that it knows how to think without help, without every unknown addressed. It’s silly to say, but I miss the spaces my brain used to hold before it saw all the things it didn’t know as knowable. Creativity happened there." 

Anyway, as a librarian, that line about having "every unknown" addressed resonates. It wasn't that long ago when we went to the library reference desk to look up simple facts about people, places and things. 

How old was Frank Sinatra when he died? How many people live in Mexico City? What's the average monthly temperature in Palm Springs?  And so on and so on, now instant gratification in the palm of your hand.  No wonder we're addicted to our phones. 

Where am I going with all this? My early morning screen time habit is hard on aging eyes, especially on these dark mornings. No worries, Feathers and Flowers isn't going away. I love sharing photos and news with our family and friends, but I’m experimenting with healthier screen times.