Living without postponement...
Life is fired at us point-blank
“We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness it is always urgent, 'here and now,' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank”— Jose Ortega y Gasset.
All of us have the same 24 hours in our day—no more—no less. I have always been an early riser, a ‘seize the day’ sort of person. Even before having children I relished early morning cycling while the mist was rising off the lake or simply being outside before the sun.
Those hours feel stolen and I have done a good job of keeping them sacrosanct. And then, enter the damn pandemic. Everything is culled. Friendships we will never return to and even jobs that no longer serve us. The capriciousness of life is all too real.
But here is the strange bit. I may still be “showing up” but am I? Physically I can swim a mile or more—but somewhere between 30 and 40 laps I get bored. The stack of books on my must-read list continues to grow but again—my mind wanders around page 20 or so. Don’t get me started on the book I am writing. I am ambling forward with big milestones in view but oh the whining…
What is going on?
LinkedIn, once touted as a “professional” social media platform is awash in clueless unfocused humans. Don’t believe me? Take a look at my inbox messages from a given week.
Recently, a friend recommended a book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari. I am an Audible convert having just finished David Grohl’s latest book, The Storyteller—Tales of Life and Music (highly recommend) so why not?
I am like you. I continue to blame everything on the dwindling attention spans of my kids or the populace at large on the tech in their pockets. But only 1 chapter in so far and I think I may be letting myself off the hook too easily. These are the main causes explored in the book.
The Increase in Speed, Switching, and Filtering
The Crippling of Our Flow States
The Rise of Physical and Mental Exhaustion
The Collapse of Sustained Reading
The Disruption of Mind-Wandering
The Rise of Technology That Can Track and Manipulate You
The Rise of Cruel Optimism
The Surge in Stress and How it is Triggering Vigilance
Deteriorating Diets and Rising Pollution
The Rise of ADHD and How We Are Responding to It
The Confinement of Our Children, Both Physically and Psychologically
If you grab the book, let me know. I get a few pennies if you purchase from the link but your local library may also have it on their shelves. I envision deeper conversations about the problem of our inability to keep our focus. Think about how sales teams tout the climbing sales of their pharmaceutical wonder pill without regard to the pervading illnesses supporting multi-billion dollar economies. Is it our short attention spans that so easily avoid picturing prevention as a more likely solution? It might also explain the horrible world events happening right under our noses. Balls were dropped and distractions were followed. And here we are.