Recently, I spoke to a young man, barely out of his teens. Post-graduation, he was pondering university choices while working a few different jobs and living at home. He went on holiday with his parents and older siblings, but seemed to have a healthy social life, too. As we were talking, a thought rose in my head. How does one raise such a level-headed, balanced person in our conflict-ridden, chaotic and sometimes terrifying world? The answer rose in parallel with the question: by focusing on the task.
Ours is a world of disruptions. Ads want us to look their way and become engrossed in their targeted message. You need this to feel better! Social posts claim our attention, feeding off our hunger to be seen, to be liked. World leaders start wars and instil in us a sense of omnipresent dread. Political opposition point fingers at the others, promising swift results if only.
Like raising a child into a harmonious young person, writing is a laborious task. For long stretches of time, it demands your undivided attention. At other times, it needs that you put it away, let it mature in peace while you ponder other things. Ever since that first time of creation, it has led a life of its own, and you know better than to enforce your will at all times.
A novel-in-creation can be affected by infant diseases: it can turn feverish, it can sleep for days and seem to be nothing at all, or it can pull all your strings at once. But just like talking to an interesting and balanced human being that has been brought into this world by another humans, then aided on their path by several other humans, reading a well-balanced and articulate novel can be a satisfying experience. One starts to wonder how the living organism that is a human being or a finished novel got to this point, how it could dodge all the dangers and pitfalls and end up, well, such a masterpiece in its own right.
In our world where attention is a good that is coveted and bought for cash, our human ability to focus is something worth protecting. Out of it, we create songs, paintings, sculptures and books that touch other humans and – hopefully – open their hearts so our world can become just a little bit better. Out of it, we create other humans able to focus that can take the torch when our legs finally fail us and our minds are too tired to think. A circle of life, of art; of experiences shared across the ages. That is the kind of pursuit worthy of our undivided attention.
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