Thoughts are like light beams.
The more concentrated, the more they illuminate. A focused mind can conceive
and realize tremendous objectives. The power of concentration has given
us piano sonatas and discipline to practice them, novels and the literacy to
read. Consider all that Stephen Hawking grasped about the space-time continuum
because he had so much uninterrupted time and space to study it. If not for a
rigorous brain, we still wouldn't know how to control fire or raise food, let
alone come up with paella, the Sistine Chapel, and quantum theory.
But.
Our attention span.
Is becoming.
Byte-sized.
Industrial automation and
electronic overstimulation have shattered presence of mind, the very aspect
separating us from those erratic squirrels we're increasingly unable to ignore.
A lack of mental stamina
threatens everything of substantive worth because a fragmented thought process
yields an incoherent conclusion, the way a smashed mirror reflects a splintered
face. Deep understanding, sustainable innovation, lasting relationships, the
arts, justice... it all depends on patient perseverance.
Multitasking is a euphemism for
distraction.
Eventually, by sabotage or
exhausted resources, a wholesale collapse of the digital infrastructure will
force an analog reboot. In the meantime, we might ready ourselves and maintain
some synaptic tenacity by willfully disconnecting from the Network, by
safeguarding our precious time for slow, offline engagements like meditation,
drawing, fishing, building a deck, reading a book, writing one, having
face-to-face conversations―just sitting with the stereo
on, reflecting.
Should this mass cognitive
decline go on unchecked, should we wait too long to reassemble our collective
consciousness, some crucial pieces may be lost altogether.
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