Sunday, January 08, 2006

Reach Out and Distract Someone


From time to time I get confused in mid-sentence. Do you ever feel this way? Just rockin’ along, thoughts clearly organized, precisely expressed, getting good feedback…and BAM! Like a John Madden hit—I go blank.

It’s not “old timer’s disease.”
Yet.

It can come from a number of external and internal stimuli.

Like Charles Dickens’ character in “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge, thinking his nocturnal jousts with the spirit world are the result of a morsel of cheese or a bite of something from supper, I can, and often do get thrown off by a scrap of paper with a handwritten note, an instruction manual for a piece of new equipment, or in Friday’s case, an IM screen flashing just inside my range of peripheral vision.

As you can see, some of this distraction is unavoidable. Many mornings my IM screen looks like the tiled splashboard behind the kitchen sink…and when they’re all flashing at once, demanding my attention, they can look like an airport runway nighttime landing guidance system…

Not that I mind.

It’s great to be in touch.

But sometimes, too much touchiness will throw you out of touch with where you need to be.

Wouldn't Mr. Bell be amazed?

"Watson...never mind. I'll IM you."

No comments: