A Wandering Thought
THE human attention span is tender like dandelions in the wind, but, in order to live responsibly, our attention span must grow roots. If this is to happen, we must mature in our self-awareness. Such keen sensitivity is not passive, rather it is mindful and preemptive. It is unfortunate that our culture doesn’t value, through, a thirsty concentration, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s revolutionary rhetoric or Frederick Douglas’ soul-compelling speeches or the mesmerizing scenes of James Baldwin’s fiction. For us to cultivate the garden of our soul and bid all to come and eat and rest, it is imperative that we unveil attention’s correlation with love. Mumia can only inspire his audience once they admire his words. Sympathy can only be found for Frederick when man’s ears listen to understand. James’ scenes can only transcend fiction once they are meticulously read. Now are you ready to begin our pilgrimage to understand the connection between love and attention?
Attention is the bridge love transports its patience and kindness and gentleness and selflessness and forgiveness and understanding. This bridge is a two-way connection from one person’s heart to the next. The more attention two people give each other, the greater the congestion upon the bridge, but, remember, traffic on this bridge supports our emotional economy. Nature and science have inculcated Isaac Newton’s law of action and reaction as doctrine. Therefore, it is a fundamental natural law that attention is reciprocal. In nature, animals have an opportunity to mate only when the female acknowledges the male’s instigation. Consider the harmonious functioning of a 4-way stop. When the red-light malfunctions, accidents are avoided through the awareness of each driver’s attention.
So it is with love, between the supreme, thinking animals. If the bridge is constructed, most of the time, the reciprocal attention is stronger than the force of gravity. The gravitational pull is so strong that everyone in the individual’s proximity is forced to give attention to the being engaged in the love dance. That is why when people are in love, everyone with eyes and ears knows about it. Therefore, we must intelligently maximize, prudently watch, and patiently work with the attention we give and receive as the potter assiduously and fastidiously molds the clay. In the stirring or cessation of this attentive energy lies a direct connection to the growth or death of the relationship. This should be obvious and all dissenters should be silenced, yet it is befuddling how often this elementary principle is ignored, neglected, and contravened.
“We must acknowledge that yesterday’s way is the wrong way—and resolve to chart a new road where neither profit nor production is king, and where the unique blessings of this blue-green ball do not fade to gray.”
