Are you distracted? Open a book

Great description of how our increasingly busy and electronic world has us all a little scattered. I wish he spent more time on the "how" of unconnecting, but interesting nonetheless.

""What I'm struggling with," [David Ulin, in The Lost Art of Reading] writes, "is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there's something out there that merits my attention."

"I think most of us have this sense today, if we are honest. If you read a book with your laptop thrumming on the other side of the room, it can be like trying to read in the middle of a party, where everyone is shouting to each other. To read, you need to slow down. You need mental silence except for the words. That's getting harder to find."

That, I think, is presicely why I read, to obtain some of that "mental silence." What a precious commodity in today's world, silence. Silence to ponder, contemplate, remember. It used to be that kids *could* get bored. Now, I think when they say they're bored, what they really mean is that they're over-stimulated and over-filled with things that don't matter and they can't make sense of it. Reading is a balm for such meaninglessness. Only, it's fewer and fewer of us that can recognize the need for "mental silence."

Read it here. Found via my homeschool email group. Thanks J!

Learned a new word

I can't pronounce it (yet), but it's deliciously long and has an ironic meaning:

floccinaucinihilipilification

[flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuh]

the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in theEnglish language).

Definition: an act or instance of judging something to beworthless or trivial

Etymology: the parts of the word each mean 'at nothing' or'with a small price'

Which, of course, reminded me of those 4th grade extra credit spelling words. That I have never forgotten and have never used, except to remember them.

antidisestablishmentarianism

and

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Which, if you think about it, are nothing more than floccinaucinihilipilification, because as ideas they can be expressed in much simpler terms. ("opposition to the belief that there should not be an official church in England" and "blacklung, or miner's lung disease")

Wasn't that fun?

which is the lesser of two evils...?

And no, I don't mean "two weevils." (Name that movie.)

I've been pondering the various emotional responses we tend to have, we humans, and this is a vast generalization, but when it comes to "hot topics," we tend to either be naive or paranoid, optimistic or pessimistic, trusting or suspicious. And the majority of folks seem to be the latter(s): paranoid, pessimistic and suspicious.

Which begs the question, which is worse? Really, in terms of outcome, quality of life, effectiveness, anything that matters; is it better for me to be naive or paranoid?

I know you've got an opinion! ;)

Thoughts on attention and focus

So, I have trouble remembering things (who doesn't), and I lose my focus as I get tired in the evening (again, you don't?). But sometimes, when I'm tired, if I get interrupted, it's so hard to get mentally back where I was, as to be nigh impossible. Imagine if you had to pull the fridge out from the wall every time you wanted a drink of milk, because the door was in the back. Like that. You'd stop drinking milk, wouldn't you?! he he

I find that if I need more than one thing at the grocery store, I have to write it down. (I shouldn't be going if I only need one thing, but that's another matter.) Often, when I walk into the next room to do/get something, I not only forget what it was before I get there, but I've forgotten THAT I WAS DOING ANYTHING AT ALL, and just sort of come up with something else, because a mother's work is never done, after all, so it's not like I'm wandering aimlessly, without a thought in my noggin. Yet.

So, would you be worried? I'm thinking about having an evaluation by a psychologist, since my insurance will likely pay, for memory and adult ADD.

And I thought you might be interested in why I'm such a flake. Be warned, if I suggest I'll do something or give something to you and I don't get around to it, REMIND ME! HA HA HA I probably just FORGOT! ;)

A (what to make for dinner, activites for Wed's class, why is Firecracker screaming again?) D (gosh, new snow is beautiful, where's that list I made..

(what was I thinking about? Oh yeah!!)

ADD

I think I probably have had a twinge of ADD my whole life, and managed it well enough. Well enough to not wonder if I was abnormal or broken or anything, that is. This last kid, Firecracker, has changed our lives in innumerable and mostly happy ways. But it must be mentioned that I will never feel the same again!

Reading The Disorganized Mind, by Nancy Ratey, and Women with Attention Deficit Disorder, by Sari Solden have helped me identify in what ways my wandering attention bugs me.

A few of them are:

• I can only focus on one thing at a time, either being touched, or listening or looking. More than one thing taxes me and requires quiet time to "rest up" afterwards.
• I re-fuel by being alone and quiet. Reading is OK, but listening or watching is not useful, but rather draining.
• When I'm mentally and physically prepared to start a project (which takes an inordinate amount of effort all by itself), I find myself inexplicably and unstoppably driven to do SOMETHING ELSE.
• I become incapable of making decisions about things and organizing. I'm not paralyzed by emotions or what-ifs, I just can't decide.

There are lists and lists out there of typical ADD characteristics. But what concerns me now is HOW TO COPE. Working on it will be a lifetime activity, I suppose. I hope I make some headway before I get old and have dementia! (sort of funny, sort of not!)