Attention

Upon what sub­jects do you focus? What things gets your atten­tion? How long have you been in this trance? I know peo­ple that are so stuck in their rou­tine thoughts that I can pre­dict the first five things they are going to say. I can tell you the pat­tern of their thoughts. Then again, why would I focus on that? Isn’t that just a part of my pre­dictable thoughts too?

That which gets atten­tion gets paid. There is a rea­son celebri­ties do such bizarre things to stay in the news. The same goes for politi­cians I sup­pose. I don’t really know much any­more. They get less and less of my atten­tion each day. I lost touch with pop music long ago. Hol­ly­weird lives up to its name. There are only so many ways they can get one’s atten­tion. It takes a vil­lage idiot to stare at the same lava lamp all day. We have many of those lamps — most of them elec­tronic (Inter­net, TV, Radio, Elec­tronic Games, Cell Phones, etc.).

Don’t get me wrong. I use all of those things at one time or another. Noth­ing beats a great movie, a ter­rific con­ver­sa­tion, a needed piece of infor­ma­tion, or just some mind­less amuse­ment. The ques­tion has to do with where your atten­tion is defi­cient. How long has it been since you took the time to watch a sun­set? Not glance at it while you thought other thoughts — but when you really watched it for its own sake. The same goes for the rest of nature.

Magi­cians do best with adults. We have pre­dictable atten­tion pat­terns. Chil­dren give them fits. They are not look­ing where the rest of us are. Kids have novel ways of see­ing things. They are not watch­ing the road ahead. They are look­ing at the run­away ele­phant in the field that is being chased by its cir­cus own­ers. Also, the adult dri­ving is look­ing inside his or her head at all sorts of mem­o­rized trivia — and call­ing it thinking.

Con­di­tion­ing! All they have to do is get us all in the same trance. It is an old game. The trance can be induced by “bread and cir­cus” or by sheer ter­ror. Then some­one like Jesus comes along and breaks up the com­mon atten­tion pat­tern. Peo­ple don’t like that. They killed him so they could get back to their rou­tine per­cep­tions. Ninety per­cent of the world did not pay atten­tion to him in any mean­ing­ful sort of way. The per­cent­age has not changed much in the last cou­ple of thou­sand years. And you are focus­ing on what today?