Editor’s Note: As we follow the adventures of Bob and Claire Rogers, let’s look at an article that Bob wrote some time ago that describes his motivation for “taking the road less traveled.” I think you will get a better appreciation of what drives Bob and Claire to do what they do, to go where they go, and live the life they have chosen for themselves. There are lessons to be learned here for all of us. Thanks, Bob, for allowing us to share this great little personal essay with the readers of Just One Opinion.
Attention! Attention!
The French accent did not disguise the intent of the word our languages share from the Latin.
Whirrrrrr! Clunk! Clunk! Gone! The melon-sized rock, falling from a French Alp at terminal velocity, would have taken my head off had I not been fully attentive at that particular moment and hugged the vertical ice encrusted rock with the intensity of a lover.
Climbing vertical rock and ice has a way of acutely focusing your attention while releasing a delicious sense of aliveness.
A mid-life crisis in my early thirties sent me off to Europe to spend a summer trying to kill myself by doing obscenely difficult Alpine routes. With just a few climbs on a small rock in West Virginia under my belt, I somehow survived and learned one of my most valuable lessons: the value of attention to this life.
This seemingly basic concept of “attention” deserves a closer look.
[From Wikipedia:]
William James, in his textbook Principles of Psychology, remarked:
“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.”
I wonder if our increasing tendency to multitask (of which I am guilty) is robbing us of the ability and affinity for focusing on the precious intense moments of living that are within our grasp daily.
If our brain is trying to accomplish several things at once, something is lost, and that something is the intense pleasure to be had from focusing on one thing: one simple beautiful piece or moment in the universe.
I don’t want to focus on the negatives of multitasking, but on the rewards of attention:
The day I wrote this, my wife Claire and I rode our bicycles to Ski Valley in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. We began our ride at sunrise in saguaros heavy with white blossoms and the faintly acrid scent of creosote,
both signatures of the Sonora Desert, and ended at nearly 9,000 feet in aspens alive with the eager gobbling of a turkey in the deep forest.
Along the way as the saguaros gave way to bushy oaks, we caught the scent of dry grass. Then came the gin smell of juniper and the vanilla of ponderosa pines – all punctuated by the liquid descending call of a canyon wren – and finally into the clean sharpness of spruce and thin air.
You get the idea. I was paying attention – very close attention – to the subtle changes of the varied climate zones that span from Mexico to Canada, that we had passed through in just three hours.
Of course we could have driven it in a motor vehicle more quickly, and we do sometimes, but we would have missed most of the smells, all of the sounds, and the involvement of our own bodies.
Muscles working against gravity have a way of demanding one’s attention. Contrary to popular perception, that sensation is mostly pleasant if focused on, rather than trying to ignore the “pain.” Pain and pleasure can be interchangeable with the right attention and attitude.
On the way down the sense of speed was intensified by gusts tugging at the light bicycle and skinny tires. At this speed paying attention is not only rewarding, but required. Forty – or even fifty miles per hour – on a bicycle is pure joy, even if it is just on the edge of being scary.
While we were at a rest stop for a snack and to enjoy a view of the city, Claire was using her water bottle to wash a bug from her eye. I got close to her to see if it was gone. The aliveness and attention of our day together coalesced into my desire to hold her – and I did. I focused my attention where our damp bodies met, the smell of her hair, the sun on my back. As I held her I told her something very personal that I’d been wanting to share with her about my desires for the end of my life. I’m not sure any other combination of circumstances would have led me to make that revelation.
Life is only fully appreciated through attention – especially attention to emotions.
This subject deserves more than I am giving it now – perhaps I will come back to it later. For now, those muscles I used so fully are demanding me to give full attention to a fade into a long deep sleep.
This article was adapted for use on Just One Opinion with permission by the author, Bob Rogers, from the original published May 19,2009 on NewBohemians.net. Photos and video © 2009 Bob Rogers (used with permission). Link to original article.
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I wish I was the little panda that gets to travel with you. Bob, I really enjoy your writing, and I definitely agree with you that life is only fully appreciated with attention. Whether I am playing tennis, bridge, cooking or writing an article, I always give it my full attention, otherwise what is the point. Attention is the only fair way to treat your friends, whether you are competing with them, or enjoying their company. Keep writing about your life experiences, I certainly am an avid fan. Chi