Paying attention can be a force of "habits"

How many times have you been at a gathering of people and then heard some loud, booming voice say, "may I have your attention please"? In Colonial times, the town crier would have had this role, but the call would have been the quite familiar, "hear ye, hear ye". Whichever the case, the very shrill of the person's voice or a whistle, each gets the crowd to settle down so some pronouncement can be made. At least for an instant, everyone "focuses" the attention on the speaker delivering the message. Sometimes, the distractions are so intense that none of these efforts break that "trance" we call day dreaming, unless of course, it was Sister Yvonne.

Sister Yvonne was my 5th grade school teacher at St. Joseph's. She had the reputation of being very strict with the boys, but the girls just loved her. Since she had at least 2 of my older sisters and my older brother, I wasn't quite sure what my prospects were when I entered her classroom in my youth. My brother, however, was an exceptional student, so he was received more like those angelic women. As I recall, she would write our homework assignments on the chalkboard, and if we were lucky, you could complete all the homework before you even left for home. This was particularly important in the Fall, when the "usable" after school daylight was a premium and my friends and I needed to "stretch" our legs playing football.

During class one day, I remember finding myself looking out those huge, double hung windows in our classroom "studying" the birds and wondering, "How do they fly"? I marveled at this mystery, and wished that I too, could fly, just to get a "birds eye" view of things. Suddenly, from that trance like state, I heard this voice asking me a question to which I had no response. Fortunately, when Sister asked what I had been doing I quickly pondered my options; do I admit my guilt or do I make up some "white lie" and say that I didn't hear the question. Remember now, this was Sister Yvonne whose reputation was legendary, so I fessed up and admitted that I wasn't paying attention. She seemed surprised by my honesty, but I have contended ever since that this admission of guilt went a long way to helping smooth over an "old habit".

I owe an awful lot to Sister Yvonne and the others, for over the years, I have reflected on this event and have even used it to illustrate to others that "day dreaming" may not be pathological. In fact, I believe that it is only an issue, if it occupies a disproportionate percent of one's time and thus interferes with working productively. Otherwise, it may simply serve as a distraction that ultimately keeps us "grounded", unlike those feathery friends!