With or without you

Attention

Look at me. Look at me. What am I at heart? What makes me, me. How do you prove you are you? You may have those that can vouch for you – pray they don’t collude with others to deny all knowledge of you. Genetic fingerprints could be that of your twin. How do you prove you have no twin when records have been changed? You, whatever makes you, you, likes attention to some degree. Some like attention more than others. We may choose to ignore those that are constantly seeking attention. I often de-elevate them. However, must we always chastise attention seekers? They deserve some attention as do you.

Whenever an opportunity to dance arose, I would hold out a hand offering someone the chance to join in. Never grabbing, always offering, sometimes being declined, usually taken up. When I invite someone to dance with me, I am certainly getting their attention, but am I trying to get the attention of all the onlookers too? Were we in isolation in an empty field, it wouldn’t make any difference is my claim. Wanting a connection is hard to criticize. I want to leave with them wanting more, nobody else needs to know about it. Many of us are somewhat shy and prefer not to have lots watching, but that is not the case with an attention seeker. Interacting with strangers in this way can start a chain of others following suit. We build a great atmosphere. Everyone is taking one another by the hand. Dancing bliss. Once the event is over, we just say toddle-pips and never see each other again. The time the place the opportunity.

It is useful to know this; everything you have done and will do is largely irrelevant when you look back from the future. Besides, the earth is a fleck of dust in the cosmos. You may feel important, but even those that rise to a degree of prominence are more puppet, figurehead, than godly life force. We can manage just fine without you. Only a few will miss you deeply. That is until they die too. In some cases, people may have been better off if you had never existed. What you plot and plan is for your pleasure. Life is there to be enjoyed. Nothing more. Feel free to enjoy tinkering, tailoring the world. Some will appreciate it. Other maybe not quite so much. Mistakes will be forgotten, errors corrected. Thoughts fade. Your ideas superseded.

Positive thinking arises from negative introspection. Scepticism and cynicism lead to freedom.

Whilst legacies are over rated, we can be grateful for people that made things, did things, that made a huge difference to us and our ilk. What they produced gave us pleasure and fulfilment. From music to life changing innovations, without which our life would be so much poorer. It was fortunate that we encountered them and fortunate that they existed during our lifetime.

Have you ever been put on the spot and been asked for your opinion? What you need is one relatable poignant thing to say. Brevity can be powerful. An army general asked me what I thought about current world events. One line is all I needed to give. “What they have done is akin to throwing a grenade into a hornet’s nest, now the problem is dispersed and set to grow.” We remember snippets of life. We forget most of what we hear. We forget most of what we see. Much of our knowledge is superfluous and not used. Much of what we know is only useful for a quiz – which we take part in once a decade. All that waffle you want to get across is not needed. Admittedly, we may need to provide context and depth to accompany the main point we are trying to make. However, you can make a bigger impact by saying less. Quality over quantity. Quantity is forgotten; quality can stick. For a while that is.