Footnotes:: March
Attention and the quandary of where we direct it
March brings light into the evenings.
At last, Europe and North America have all crossed the line of daylight savings (if we must do this, why can’t we all do it the same week!?). Our attention spreads beyond the edge of the lamplight, with the dimness receding by the day.
Attention has been a theme circling in my head. As I read with dusk outside the windows, the question of what we pay attention to and how reels me in. On the one hand, paying attention feels urgent, a matter of life and death, as Ted Chiang beautifully articulates in one of my favorite story collections, Exhalation:
"Human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction, but I don’t blame them for it. They didn’t do it maliciously. They just weren’t paying attention."
He’s right. If we had paid more attention to the consequences of consumption in so many industries, perhaps the climate change crisis could have been averted. But how do we manage to pay closer attention, when the amount of inputs we can pay attention to is virtually unlimited?
We aren’t built to pay close attention to everything. According to Daniel J. Levithin in his book The Organized Mind, paying less attention it essential to succeeding at our goals:
“Successful people—or people who can afford it—employ layers of people whose job it is to narrow the attentional filter.”
How can we reach the optimal level of attention? After all, we want to work toward our intentions without letting our carelessness create disasters around us. Through copious recent reading, the “right” amount of attention felt as elusive finding the “right” temperature in the shower, as comedian Eddie Izzard shares:
“One nanomilimeter between fantastically hot and fucking freezing. Everyone who gets into a shower, they immediately become like a safe breaker.”
Writing is about paying attention. So how can we pay attention in a way that fuels our writing without squashing everything we focus on under a microscope? What feeds our creativity and what overwhelms it?
I’ll be exploring the psychology of attention in the members posts throughout April, so stay tuned. I feel something growing around this topic and it feels quite magical. After all…
"Attention is the beginning of devotion." -Mary Oliver, Upstream
Delights from this month:
Book favorites from March:
The World We Make, NK Jemisin. The second book in her Great Cities Duology, this one is as wild a ride as the first. A sci-fi fantasy world in which major cities become sentient beings responsible for and able to feel their populations’ well-being (or lack thereof), this series is a thrilling metaphor in how much community and connection matter.
Ingrained, Callum Robinson. A memoir about creating a woodworking business that not only survives financially, but also feeds the employees, town, and environment it touches, inspired me to think about tangible impact in all areas of work. Inspiring and transparent, it also inspired my post on craft professions and writing craft. (see below for a link)
Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfield. This was a re-read I hadn’t touched since I was a child, and what a treat it was to return to this world. Far from an idealized story, three orphans develop their talents on the stage to help their struggling adoptive household, with wonderful scenes of auditions and many life lessons learned. My only critique was that Streatfield didn’t write a sequel right where this book ended, which would have been just as gripping. Written in the 1930s, the attitudes feel surprisingly modern in many cases, especially when it comes to getting through tough times.
The Book Alchemy quarterly workshop replay is now up
It’s available for members in the Secret Reference Library.
Not yet a member?
Upgrade your subscription and get access to this and four other workshops here:
Other delights for your attention:
- shared discoveries from an experiment keeping her attention offline. I’m a sucker for getting a peek inside journals, especially ones with drawings.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to judge a literary prize,
has got you with an in-depth peek at being on the jury for the Women’s Prize.This post on the dangers of overscheduling by
is so real. Thoughts on how we got so overwhelmed that will make you feel seen.Excellent thoughts from
on other people’s reactions to a memoir before (and after) it comes out.Many thanks to
for these tea recipes to combat overwhelm.Since the last issue of Footnotes, we’ve released two more episodes of
The Secret Library Podcast. Listen up here.
I’ve removed the paywall on this post for the next week. Enjoy the read!
If you enjoy it, members get access to this and all posts in the archive.
Enjoy the change of light.
Whether you’re in a part of the world where it’s growing or waning this time of year, pay attention to what you notice during the shift.
I’m curious how you’re managing your attention these days.
What feels important?
What feels like too much?
How are you separating the two?
Leave a comment and share your thoughts. I look forward to exploring this together.
xx,
Caroline
Thanks for the hilarious Eddie Izzard video! The whole thing is great. I know it’s not considered an “American” thing, but my bathtub has separate hot and cold taps for the shower and for the tub, and hot water is generally unreliable. I’m only two floors up from the boiler. Plus, the cold tap is likely to run hotter than the hot tap when the radiators are on.