Success
At soccer practice last night, one of the players remarked, quickly, as he was moving, “Now I understand.â€
Tag: attention
Present Opportunities
There’s a sense of responsibility to the warm lump of soft cat in my lap which supersedes all other urges to rise from bed or chair. No contest between this c...
No Phones on the Field
I have been using my iPhone as a stopwatch, and sometimes for background music, during soccer practice for a while now. Not anymore. Last Thursday one of my pla...
Skipping the Skip-nows
My children and I have been indulging in Screen-Free Week. We have read books, played games, and talked together. A week earlier they were binge-watching someth...
Impulses
ACTION REQUIRED, the e-mail demands, NOW. Give money. Sale! One day only! You might like this video. Sign our petition now or terrible things will happen! How w...
Shards
If you mustsit inside on a bright and lovely day,focused--for definitions that mean unfocused--on the screen of a computer,not the world around,then the shards ...
A Procrastinator’s Love Song
Lots of things to do, there are lots of things to do.Lots of things to do, there are lots of things to do.If I got up this morn, then I could do them too.Lots o...
This Morning
This morningThe geese called me, wake!to look at the palest pinksand blues of grey dawn This morningwispy steam risingmy teacup counsels, patiencenow is the wai...
Certainly Meaning Matters
Spectator sports are relaxing because I know I can't affect the outcome.
Now
The iPhone crouches at the corner of my chair, well within reach. The iMac sits on the altar in the living room, but I can worship from afar by picking up the i...
All These Many Voices
In which I feel relatively free making up statistics because my assertion doesn't care -- and reliable data is hard to find if not nonexistent.
The Illusion of Perfection
One of my favorite stories of a political figure is of Jimmy Carter, who said, yes, I’ve sinned. I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve...
Connectivity
Respect for others’ time is difficult when you cannot see them. The telephone interrupts dinner, church, conversations. The burden of ignoring the interru...
Patience, Grasshopper
A little attention goes a long way. I’ve come to believe that a great deal of unnecessary coercion, what one might call excessive use of force, is directl...
Chaperone on the Field Trip
Without constant external stimulation, we might have to face the anxious terror of consciousness. And so the increasingly urgent demand in a first grader’...