This doesn’t look right. Our eyes have paid attention.
This sounds a little out of tune. Our ears have paid attention.
This tastes funny. Our tongue has paid attention.
This smells fishy. Our nose has paid attention.
This feels too hot. Our fingers have paid attention.
In a world that is moving 1,000,000 m.p.h. it is easy to overlook, hit the mute button, eat too fast, ignore smoke alarms, and forget to use a hot pad.
Paying with your attention will compensate your focus.
The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that some 49.1 million prescriptions for ADHD drugs were written last year in the U.S., up 21% from 2008. Some 46% of the prescriptions in 2010 were for people aged 20 and above.
This should not surprise us.
Since 2008 the world has added numerous to-do’s to our daily routine that were not previously there:
-Facebook status updates. The world has to know what I’m up to, right?
-Twitter beckons us to tweet. If Gaga has something to say, I should too.
-Foursquare check in. I’m at Taco Bell and you should care. After all, they have a diet menu now.
-Polish my LinkedIn profile. E-Resume’s are cool.
-DVR . Now we can watch every show on television. We used to have to pick just one.
-Starbucks occupies near every corner with a stoplight. I need a soy latte` now! And again in an hour.
See how it has taken only 3 years, about 1,000 days, for the population that doctors classify inattentive and overactive to grow 21%?
Now, none of these things are bad. I’m just asking you to be aware to what’s unfolding around us and what can steal us from daily accomplishment if we’re not careful.
I’m haunted right now about the essence of today. Today matters. Today counts. Today things have to move and art has to be made.
I fear the iphone display that’s burning permanently in our retinas. I fear being more caught up in the man on Twitter than the man in the mirror.
There’s work to be done. Let’s do it.
Most school systems fail us. If you are a teacher, that is not a poke at you – it is a poke at the system.
School (the system) has taught us all that spelling is big deal. It used to be. Multiplication and division is important – why? I can do almost any math problem with my phone now.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 only is important because it is the answer to our 5th grade test. What was truly important was the idea that the world was not flat. The system forgets to teach that. A world that was not flat that was an Internetesque idea in its time – a game changing concept.
What if our kids had the chance to reenact landing in America on Santa Maria? What if they planned what they had to pack for the trip? What if they had to communicate with the locals upon arrival? What if they learned how to sail the ocean? I can assure you that dreams would start if a teacher had the platform to encourage his/her students to go prove their prospective worlds are not flat.
Yet the system demands that clubs or groups be created in order to engage our creative. When you hear things like the debate team, glee club, photography club, and entrepreneurship club your mind autopilots to Dorkville. Which is fine, just don’t teach your kids that mentality. Give it time, and they will find out that names like Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Buffet tend to be the mayors of Dorkville.
So you won the spelling bee? Big deal.
So you never won the spelling bee? Whoopdeedo.
Why do we even have spelling bees now? Bill Gates won the spelling bee for all of us when he created Word.
We all win when you are placed in atmosphere to create and imagine the next Windows or Facebook of the world. Only you win when you remember how to spell baccalaureate.
Nature has a beautiful way of showing us how things really are.
For instance, let’s look at a rose.
Behind the beauty and aroma of every rose is a grueling and systematic process. Before the rose can be in a vase, there is a lot of work to be done.
First, the dirt had to be tilled, then a bush had to be planted, then the bush had to be watered, then the bush had to be sun-baked, then the stems had to be pruned, next the rose buds, and finally the rose blooms.
See the rules? See the process? This is botany meets sheet music. Remove any of these steps and you’re roseless.
Things of beauty are rarely happenstance and are quite difficult for a fast-food society to grasp.
So you want the world to stop and smell your roses?
Go till the soil today. Then plant something today. Then water that something today. Then…
Roses are results of work that happened yesterday and they beg us to do work today that matters.
Our families, churches, and businesses will never bloom until we get some dirt under our fingernails.
2 Lesson Points:
1) Yesterday was your best day to plant, but it is over. Today is now your best bet. Tomorrow is unacceptable.
2) You are going to want some roses in the spring, and yelling at the dirt won’t make that happen when April comes around.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. The Message 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Now we can answers Tina Turner’s question.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything.
Love is in the business of challenging the status quo.
Without it our souls, our businesses, and our lives are bankrupt.
With it we can orchestrate wonderful music and the world around us will join in with song and dance.
Ashton.Gustafson 