distraction from Distraction...

A question is brought up, seemingly over and over again. It floats through the back of my mind while I sit in another roasting classroom, another voice thrums through the air like radio in the background. Change scene, same plot. Another classroom, another chair, another voice. Then my thoughts are being read out for the whole class to comprehend: "What is the Point?" I blink my eyes to make sure I had not been lost in another day dream, but no, the words are repeated. Why are we here, in this classroom? A question one must have the privilege of asking themselves at least once a day if not once an hour. It is one that commands my presence in every activity and scenario. It summons my attention and stops my wanderings. That attention, as reviewed by Sven Birkerts in his story "The Art of Attention", is the center-most theme discussed with an almost complete reverence. "To pay attention, to attend. To be present, not merely in body--it is an action of the spirit." Clearer words have never spoken more to me. To be fully immersed gives me a feeling all my own. Whether that activity is an early morning 3 mile run with the rising sun at my back or reading a book at 1 in the morning because I simply cannot put it down, I am in those activities and become those activities. We discussed what T.S. Elliot might have meant when he said "...distraction from Distraction by distractions..." In my mind, that discussion became one of deep sentimentality and spirituality. I believe what Elliot meant, and what Birkerts supported, was that Distraction is not finding a small, winding path on the road of life and momentarily getting lost on it before scrambling to find your way back. Instead, it is realizing that that little pathway is the road of life. Do not misunderstand me, I am not excusing or justifying laziness. Just the opposite actually for truly following Distraction and immersion is to follow an almost religious practice. It is to follow God as "God is the moment". That line comes from a song entitled "Hold Your Head Up" by Macklemore and is the lyric that has continually popped up in my head during our class discussions. It all traces back to that root question: What is the point? For Elliot, it was to be distracted. For Birkerts, it is to pay attention. For Macklemore, it is to be in the moment. For me, it is to do each and every one of those things as they are all the same commandment. Live in a book. Live in an activity. Live in the moment, for there is where one finds their "God".