I wanted students to learn an important lesson, never to be forgotten, related to the high cost of distraction. I carefully designed my research project to be carried out with precision. In my office, a few steps from the classroom where I was to lecture, I buttoned my jacket with the top hole on the one side enveloping the second button down on the other. I entered the room at the last moment, using my notes to cover my indiscretion – so as not to gain any response before the beginning of the lecture. Placing my sheaf of notes on the stand, I began speaking to the class in my standard way, continuing for ten minutes. I stopped and said, I detect that there is something of a problem here. You do not seem as attentive as usual. What’s the matter? Immediately, a student answered: Dr. Lee, your jacket is buttoned wrong. It’s funny looking. The discussion for the next fifteen minutes was exactly what I was looking forward to achieve. The students admitted that they had some difficulty in focusing on the assumed main purpose of the lecture because of the mystery of the button. I revealed to them my scientific prowess, and the whole purpose was a deliberate illustration of what distraction can do to us, stealing time from higher uses for time and energy.
Distractions are large and small. One may suppose that conducts leading to a negative consequence recognized or not, are larger in our lives than one that only steals time as above. The litany of tragedies from distractions is great. At the time of this writing, social leaders are trying to persuade drivers from using cell phones, especially related to texting. A gracious text to a loving parent, by a loving son, induced the lad to swerve the car – to death. Several planes have crashed causing hundreds of lives because of pilot error. Two pilots were suspended when, distracted by their personal computers, they overflew the Minneapolis airport by more than 100 miles. The issues of monstrous distractions can be complex, as when a nation is so taken with warfare that it can’t provide appropriate services to the citizens of the nation. Persons are distracted by drugs, by carnal liaisons, even their legitimate work – from the proper care of their families. The reader can extend this important issue to bitter ends. As one man put it, I saw a picture of a man with his son in his lap, a son trying to talk to his father. The father was occupied with the newspaper on the right while his son, on his left, should have been the primary factor. Such distraction generates feelings of loss. The reporter believed the father to be immoral. There may have been tragedy in it.
Attention to the important matter of the moment is a sign of proper perception of values, of self-control, of intelligence. We may be offended by those who look over our shoulders to see who else is in the room, while gushing how glad they are to see us. We are, when the gesture is furtive, more likely to feel put down, more than if the party had avoided us altogether. It is interesting how quickly we can recognize distraction when we are the victims of it, or think we are, and how slowly we catch on to how we commit denigrating distractions ourselves. A young man, in his early twenties, complained that jobs are scarce. He had applied and even had interviews in several instances: No one listened. The counselor told him: Comb your hair, don’t spike it; wear clothes that show you can be professional; avoid hip language; cover those tattoos; and, follow this approach to your professional life. The employer can’t see your talents and education because of your presentation. The counsel was correct and exact. I did not hear about the final outcome of this case, but I would predict success if counsel was applied. Distractions hid from others who the fellow really was, or could become. The context was different from his personal celebration alone. Similar experience is common for many. Persons in Christian ministry hear many distraction reports that are evasions of duty to faith and family. Before I entered the long oral defense of my doctoral dissertation, my chairman warned me not to use any of the difficulties faced in completing the work. Those difficulties are givens to serious research. The quality of the dissertation was the point for the committee. He noted how many students missed because of distraction from the purpose. They confused pity and scholarship. Much of life is diverted by lack of cultural development. There is a treasure of information that emerges in a commitment to maturity, in genuine sophistication. What should be my concentration just now? What awareness should I have? What attitude should I take for this context of some meaning? What should be omitted? This all relates to learned wisdom. It may entail sacrifice and humility. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020