I've Been Thinking About Attention

because the subject of “attention” keeps popping up in unexpected places

I started writing this newsletter over a month ago but kept getting stuck and I thought maybe I was stuck because this wasn’t the right topic to focus on this month. Then the subject of “attention” kept popping up in unexpected places - podcasts, posts on social media, and news articles. It might just be the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, but it felt like I wasn’t going to escape the need to look further into this topic so here we are. 

The reason I was thinking about attention at all was because I had read a line written by the poet Mary Oliver that really resonated with me and I wanted to share it with you all.

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

Having someone’s true attention has always been something I have craved - not in a “look-at-me” type of way but in a way where I want to be seen as I am, so when I read this line I knew I had found the reason as to why I’ve always craved being seen - it’s because it’s an act of love. 

Devotion is defined as love or enthusiasm for a person or thing and/or religious worship. To love, to be enthusiastic about or worship something/someone you most definitely need to give that thing your attention first. How can you love anything if you don’t know it? How can you know something if you don’t give it your attention? Being open, observant, curious, and attentive leads to love and a fuller life. Mary Oliver is so wise, the first step to devotion, to anyone, or to anything is our attention. I truly feel that.

Not only does attention lead to love, but it’s also linked to longevity. One of the random articles I came across that mentioned how important attention is, is in an article in the New York Times - A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory

The first tip Dr. Restak listed to prevent memory loss? “Pay Attention”. Here is what he said about why paying attention is good for us: 

Some memory lapses are actually attention problems, not memory problems. “Inattention is the biggest cause for memory difficulties, ” Dr. Restak said. “It means you didn’t properly encode the memory.”

Another tip he mentioned that I know you all know is coming…“beware of technology”. 

Storing everything on your phone means that “you don’t know it,” Dr. Restak said, which can erode our own mental abilities. “Why bother to focus, concentrate and apply effort to visualize something when a cellphone camera can do all the work for you?” he wrote.

The second way our relationship with technology is detrimental for memory is because it often takes our focus away from the task at hand. “In our day, the greatest impediment of memory is distraction,” Dr. Restak wrote. As many of these tools have been designed with the aim of addicting the person using them, and, as a result, we are often distracted by them. People today can check their email while streaming Netflix, talking with a friend or walking down the street. All of this impedes our ability to focus on the present moment, which is critical for encoding memories.

I would argue that if attention is the beginning of devotion then distraction is the beginning of emptiness. If we live a life of distraction we could end up with less memories, less connection, less love. 

With more access to people, information, entertainment, etc there are more opportunities to have your attention diverted to many sources. Marketers and app-makers spend incredible amounts of time trying to entice you to them. This proves how truly precious a commodity you and your attention is. It’s SO important we need to protect it. I need to protect my memory, to protect what I pay attention to, because it does lead to devotion and I want to be devoted to this beautiful planet, my family and friends, culture, humor, good food, music, new ideas, so many things that when I find myself paying attention to mindless sources and not paying attention enough to the things I love I need to check myself. I would be kidding myself if I thought there wasn’t a real danger in giving my attention to anything that asks for it, so I’m committing myself to paying attention to what I pay attention to (did I confuse you?). 

If you are still reading and paying attention to this newsletter, I’m honored. Truly. I hope I can repay the favor by being worthy of your attention, and if we aren’t providing value I hope you don’t waste your time with us and find the things you are needing that are worthy of your attention. I believe in that whole-heartedly. 

And if you are interested in the whole poem by Mary Oliver, here it is. It’s beautiful. 

“Teach the children. We don’t matter so much, but the children do. Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers. And the frisky ones–inkberry, lamb’s-quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic ones–rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school. Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms. Attention is the beginning of devotion.” - Mary Oliver

Sincerely,
Marianne