The Art of Distraction…

Well, let me start of by saying that this is something I excel at... 

No!….Not at being able to cause distractions, although I do wish I was endowed with the gift.  I could have used it to my advantage in many uncomfortable situations..The best would have been, if I could have used that on my children...as they made me suffer through those years of toddlerhood and beyond, the terrible 2’s 3's 4's 5's...and trust me, it doesn’t end there, it just starts to pick up  steam….the saga continues.  

Through all those tantrums, if I had only focused on ONE thing. Being able to distract them, life would have been so much simpler and easier and the children, much more in control and behaved too!

Are you the parent, who disagrees with this strategy?  Speak now or forever hold your peace!

So, what I am implying here is, I excel at getting distracted, not at being an object of distraction either!  A skill, I earned with age, must be..coz, I don’t remember being like this earlier…Well…I didn’t have to deal with a houseful of people and their schedules or, their ability to get distracted, either?! So, somewhere along the way…I seemed to have earned this as a side effect of making a home, a family.

As I thought of a name for this write up, I wondered, if anybody else had already used the title I was thinking about, to speak their mind. Just as I started to type…”art of”,  Google spit out some suggestions. The one that topped the list..

Art of Manliness…Art of Shaving….Art of

Yeah … Manliness?! I don’t know if that is an art form. Din’t realize that men are more self absorbed than women either.

Now if Manliness can be looked at artistically, then, I wasn’t wrong when I thought of  “getting distracted” as an art form too. Was I?

The Art of distraction,  needs some focus here, people! 

If I'm at the computer trying to forward something..I am distracted with the rest of the emails..if I’ve to forward a document, I get distracted with the rest of the documents in the folder, soon, I’ve forgotten what I had set out to do.

I had promised R, that I’d get the Raga Khamaj printed out…but, as I accessed the file, I got distracted with the other windows that were open, and I started editing a picture that was open.

It can happen in a split second and with such smoothness.  The mind just glides into the next frame like a graceful dancer. Its not bothered if the current task is left unfinished. 

Yesterday, I particularly remember...it took me forty five minutes from the time I started working on cooking Rice till the moment I turned the switch ON, on the rice cooker!

I had the vessel in my hand and I had totally entered the pantry with the intention to fill the vessel with a few cups of Rice. But, there I realized, the bag needs to be opened...I went out looking for a pair of scissors and never returned.

There were moments in all those forty five minutes that I remembered, I had actually set out to cook rice...but, it hardly takes any effort at all, to get myself away from the task. POOF!!!   That easy!!  Its as if a magic fairy is following me every moment and sprinkling dust on me…”Forget what you are doing…Look at this…!”

When I was finally washing the rice...I looked at the clock, to make sure if its not past lunch time… It was 45 mins past the moment I had started!

I had wanted to run to Hubby dear,…to tell him of what I had accomplished, like it was some proud achievement.

But. sanity struck and told me...

"No way darling....if you want that rice to be cooked...you'd better only move after you put the rice in the cooker and set it ON!"

Or,  there would be no food for the Grandparents!  Yes..if there is RICE, there is food for the grandparents!  No Rice … No Food!

And, as soon as I was finished off with the rice, as usual,  I forgot to tell Hubby dear about my accomplishment.

Its an effort for me...to be able to finish my cup of coffee every morning because of this gift! I could be walking anywhere in the house…as I have my coffee and place the unfinished mug somewhere…Its forgotten.

“Oh my coffee!”,  I remember later…Find it on the washing machine.

I manage to place it in the microwave…to heat it up and my children find it there when they return from school. I had habitually forgotten the coffee in the microwave again. They have permanently put up a board for me beside the microwave...A PERENNIAL reminder that says….

"Mommy your coffee!" 

This pic, I had clicked a few months ago..

The “Scream at Papa” was another reminder for the day. I think he goofed up something in the grocery list and I had wanted to -  So, they kept a reminder in there for me to remember…but, who remembers to look at a reminder!!  LUCKY PAPA.

So, as I continued with my quest on this topic..on Google. I realized, this seems to be quite widespread. There is a FB page dedicated to this ART form too.  Obviously, its a global phenomenon with "How severe" being the only constant.

The oxford defines it as follows:

A temporary departure from one subject to another more or less distantly related topic before the discussion of the first subject is resumed. A valuable technique in the art of storytelling, digression is also employed in many kinds of non-fictional writing and oratory.

It defines it as a valuable! I don't know how it can be valuable when you can never get your job done! I guess, The key word to remember in the Oxford definition of Distraction is “RESUMED”.  Being able to resume the first subject..Wow! how do you keep that thread intact? 

Anyways..I'm sure the person who can be like that...must be exceptional because the fact that he/she can go back to the initial topic they started off with, is a feat in itself. 

Are you one of those suffering likewise too? Do let me know. Not because I’m looking for answers, but,  for the sheer fact that, Misery loves company.  ha ha….