Can I Even Write 300 Words Anymore?
Recently I was in a car with an old friend who was driving me to the airport for a flight, in conversation with another person in the car, and looking at Facebook – all at the same time. She was also muttering, under her breath, that she wasn’t sure she knew her way there.
NO KIDDING!!! I wanted to scream. CONCENTRATE!!
I was scared. Not scared that I’d miss my flight but scared that I could become like her – addicted to distraction. Maybe I’d slip into the crowd bingeing on FB, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine because doing that is much easier than thinking, writing, this teeny tiny essay.
My computer already gives me a few distractions thank god – just checked word count – 108 so far. Phew, only 200 left to go. Now only 187. Ok quick spell check. Enough, back to work. I am scared because all around me are people popping off thoughtlessly and sometimes violently at other anonymous souls. (Have you run away already bored?)
Where does the practice of thoughtfulness come in? How do I get back there? There is one thing I know to be true: the path to a spiritual practice comes through what is conventionally called boredom. Sitting is boring. Going to church is boring – even if you are inclined that way.
Can I hold onto the boring? One thing that I have done is keep my flip phone. My family and friends think it is a pretentious trope from another age. That’s probably true. A truer truth is that it keeps me just one step further from falling down the addiction to distraction hole. Ok, 274 words and a little less frightened because I got something that involves concentration finished, but I wish that I wasn’t feeling so pulled this way already. 300 words - did it!
--Cynthia Kling
