Entertain US (Perquimans Weekly 4/16/20)

Entertain Us 

A long, long time ago, I had a foot problem. It was a common issue many others have and you might have it, too. I’m in recovery now, but it does resurface on occasion. See, my right foot becomes inexplicably heavy while driving. 

I saw some folks about it a few times through those fast years. Several “urgent care” type situations. Interventions, you could say, provided by the state of North Carolina. I didn’t see a doctor for it, but I did see the Honorable J.C.Cole about it once. I was a college student and he thought if I wrote a paper about the dangers of driving, it may lighten my foot tremendously. Boy did it ever! (Also, he’s a wonderfully fun gentleman in person, but crazy intimidating behind that bench!)

Recently, there was an awful car accident in front of our home. Thankfully, everyone was ok. It started a conversation in my home about the dangers of driving and I thought about that long ago paper in the summer of 1998. 

I wrote about speed limits for Judge Cole, but now I would write more about distractibility. I know we all discuss phone usage and texting - those are REAL problems - but I think that is a symptom of a far deeper issue that I can easily see in these long days of quarantine. I was a teen in the ‘90s, so I refer back to Kurt Cobain’s lyrics, “Here we are now, entertain us.” This is such a high paced, high productivity world now. Information comes at us from all angles like a firehose and it’s a difficult thing to pause that and focus on one monotonous thing - like driving. We want to be entertained. I read an article recently that talked about how our brains light up in MRIs to instant information and notifications. Our brains become so used to that constant pinging of stimulation that it’s hard to put it away. Collectively, this culture has developed an addiction to it, in a way.

We live right on 17, so we see it all out here. We drive that same stretch of road all the time like many of you. We want good music, we might have kids in the back or a dog riding shotgun. That’s enough distraction. It’s tough to not respond to just a quick call or text. It seems so innocent. It’s a straight-ish road, not always busy. The temptation is great!

Reader, I shock myself when I say watch your speed. I encourage you (and myself) to resist distractions. Set your smart phone to ignore things while driving. Set up the playlist before you start. Now is a wonderful time to learn to slow down our minds and pay attention to the things we take for granted. I sing or write in my head while driving, but I think I’ll work on just operating a (not too) fast Ford.